Best way to save songs/projects?

[ejlif]

I have been using Live 9 for a couple years now and am getting a pretty good grasp on things. I am wondering what is considered the best way to save a song. So far I have a main folder that I call live 9 projects and then I save each song into that Live 9 projects folder. I suppose all the audio files and such are all saved in one main big folder instead of in a folder for each individual song. Is this the right way to do it or should I be saving each song into it's own project folder with all the files separate from each other song? I have noticed a few times audio files have gone missing for no apparent reason. I do the collect all and save often just to be sure.

[H20nly]

I have a main folder where all my projects/sets are. each is then placed in it's own separate folder in the main.

if i call a project/song MyBombAssTrack it gets created as MyBombAssTrack.als
almost every time i work on it moving forward i will update the name (save as) so;

MyBombAssTrack.als
MyBombAssTrack_02.als
MyBombAssTrack_03.als
MyBombAssTrack_04.als

and so on.

.als files are quite small so this helps keep track of the revisions and betters the chances of a complete recovery if an .als file gets corrupted.

Whenever new audio is recorded or any major changes have been made to drum kits and such, i do a 'Collect All & Save' to make sure that the project is self contained... this way if i move it, or have to reinstall Live for some reason, the folder containing the song is a complete project folder rather than a collection of references to a location that may no longer exist.

hth

[ejlif]

Thanks guys I figured I should be doing it this way. Looks like it's time to get organizized.

[jestermgee]

I have a main folder where all my projects/sets are. each is then placed in it's own separate folder in the main.

if i call a project/song MyBombAssTrack it gets created as MyBombAssTrack.als
almost every time i work on it moving forward i will update the name (save as) so;

MyBombAssTrack.als
MyBombAssTrack_02.als
MyBombAssTrack_03.als
MyBombAssTrack_04.als

and so on.

.als files are quite small so this helps keep track of the revisions and betters the chances of a complete recovery if an .als file gets corrupted.

Whenever new audio is recorded or any major changes have been made to drum kits and such, i do a 'Collect All & Save' to make sure that the project is self contained... this way if i move it, or have to reinstall Live for some reason, the folder containing the song is a complete project folder rather than a collection of references to a location that may no longer exist.

^ Exactly this. There is no such thing as too many backups... ever!

[H20nly]

unless you're trying to get rid of the evidence

[Pitch Black]

Saving iterative version names of Live projects is especially vital since Live completely wipes the undo history whenever you hit save. If you make a mistake and hit save straight after, you have no comeback.

This bit me really badly last month. I finished a mixdown at 4am, selected the entire timeline range ready to render out a stereo mix. I went to hit save (command-s) but fatfingered it and hit command-x instead, deleting EVERYTHING in the timeline. My 4am brain for some reason then hit command-s again in quick succession and BOOM, I lost my last 4 hours work.

My bad for getting complacent about Live's ability to recover from crashes with, ironically, the saved undo history, so while I was all inspired and in the zone on the last stages of the mixdown, my last saved version was from 4 hours earlier. I lost all the little, subtle mix tweaks and nuances that I'd done in that time.

If I hadn't been doing iterative saves I could have lost EVERYTHING.