Re-linking files? Change path-names of linked .wavs?

Hello everyone, and thanks in advance for taking the time to look at this.

Due to the often very-large file-size for some .wavs I have (sometimes 500mb+), I usually prefer keeping the files on an external drive and linking them to Ardour rather than copying them in.

However, my computer’s a bitch. And it’s been so for like a year. -For whatever reason(s), Ardour and/or my computer has, on occasion, automatically ‘renamed’ my external drive from the normal “Sonny” to “Sonny 1”. As you can imagine, this serisouly screws-up paths when working with Ardour. And now, whenever I work on projects where my machine had done this (without my knowing) but where it’s also reset the name back to “Sonny” (usually resets after I restart the computer), I get this lovely message for many files:

[ERROR]: Filesource: cannot find required file (/Volumes/Sonny 1/DR - 100MK2 - Folder 1/DR-100MK2 - 16G SD CARDS/DR-100MK2 - 16G - 3/MUSIC/150923_0807.wav): No such file or directory [WARNING]: A sound file is missing. It will be replaced by silence.

I do indeed have a “solution” to this: I simply close Ardour, rename my drive to “Sonny 1”, and reopen the project/session. However, this is such a lame thing to have to do, especially if (God-forbid) your project has linking to both “Sonny” and “Sonny 1”… (which is now what I’m dealing with, cuz I’m an idiot).

So, my question is this: Can someone please help me ‘re-link’ the files, i.e., am I able to simply change the path-names for individual files? All I have to do is make “Sonny 1” in that path into a “Sonny”. It seems like it should be such a simple task. Yet, in all my searching on here (and online in general), no such information regarding this seems to exist (for Ardour, at least).

Thanks again!
-Ghost

This isn’t a simple task, and there’s not much reason for it to be simple because this isn’t really a common occurence.

However, it also isn’t a complex task either. First of all, we hope/assume that you are using Ardour 4.7 (or at least 4.x where x is probably larger than 3). Go to Session > Properties > Locations. In the “Search for audio files in …” section, click on “Click to add a new location”. Save the session. Reload/restart Ardour.

Let me know if this doesn’t work.

@paul
I was hoping you wouldn’t ask… Although I know it’s completely necessary. I downloaded it in 2013, -never updated. Eh-em… …drum-roll… “2.8.16/13591”. ._.
If there’s no way you can help until I update, I completely understand. (-Long story short, I’ve been working on a single album since its download and never really considered updating it because I felt it was a good enough program.)

So, quick question (which I also couldn’t find answers to), can I open my current projects/sessions in Ardour 4.7 without ‘disturbing’/‘corrupting’ the edited content?
I coincidentally found that you wrote this (https://community.ardour.org/node/10699) for another user:

"Installs from ardour.org are 100% parallell installable both with other installs from ardour.org and also with the versions from linux distributions. You can install 3.5, 4.2, 4.4 and some future 5.7 version all at the same time.

The only shared files are your preferences, key bindings etc found in ~/.config/ardour4."


However, I’m not sure if that’s applicable to my situation… ?

I appreciate your help so far, thanks.

4.7 should read your 2.x session and make a copy of the session file.

However, to be safe, I would recommend copying the entire session folder somewhere just for safety.

Almost everything will be handled except for:

  • crossfades (the crossfade model is totally different since 3.x)
  • panners (the panning models have changed)

4.7 is a MUCH better program than any previous version.