Project Folders and .als files

[gjm]

Why are some of my .als files NOT stored in Ableton Project folders while others are?

The .als that are not stored in a project folder have no related Sample, Preset and Info folders, yet there audio and MIDI tracks in those sets.

I always save everything to the default location. I have done a Collect All and Save.

The manual says that Live "Usually" takes care of creating projects automatically (I understand this to be the Project Folder where project related info, samples, presets and the .als files are stored).

For the first ever time I want to send the required project files to someone for a collab but all I can find for this particular project is an .als file of some 216KB in size. This does not make sense since there is both Audio and MIDI tracks in the project so I am expecting something more like 80MB in size. I am puzzled.

[pepezabala]

what's the "default" location? if it's your library, then you might have a big mess (the library is a project, so everything goes into the same library directory and your sets do not get managed as easily as in a specific project folder containing only your set and not the whole library).

For your collab I would do the following:

Open the live set you want to share. "Save as" under a different name on a place that is not located withina project folder (e.g. directly on your desktop, or "my documents/music/livesets/..." whatever).

Now live should have created a new project folder at this location.

Now do a collect all and save.

Now live should copy all files used in your liveset into the project folder.


Zip this folder and send it to you collaborator. Or use the "create live pack" functionality.

[gjm]

@pepezabala... Very helpful thanks

The default location is the standard Ableton folder Live set up upon installation. Documents>Ableton>Ableton Projects. I tried your method to the desktop and yes a new project folder was created that contained the .als along with the Ableton info and Sample Folders. But when saving as... into the Ableton Project folder it simply did not create the project folder. Weird.

A new issue is the size of the New Project Folder... 1.44GB I used one of the new Ableton partner Piano instruments so I guess it collected all of the samples used for that. Now if I did send as is, yet the collab partner does not have the same instrument, how will they be able to use all of those piano samples? Could I not just send the MIDI file and have them use the standard piano that comes with Live? If so, how do I re package the Project to do such a thing?

Cheers.

[pepezabala]

delete the piano instrument from the track, save it. go to "manage project", check for "unused files". It should then list all unused files, which now should be all the piano samples. delete them from the project folder.

Important is that your project folder contains only the liveset without the piano-instrument.

regarding your default location for livesets: probably the main folder contains a file called "project.cfg" - this makes live believe that the location is within a project folder.
delete this file and check hat happens now when saving new projects.

[Musiclab]

Thanks again for your help pepe. I settled on sending a .alp file as it was MUCH smaller than a zipped project folder. I created the needed file slightly different than you suggested but got the same result. I also included a rendered audio file of the Abe's partner Instrument so my collab partner has got at least some hook to hang things on with respect to the original sound. The samples from the piano made up more than 95% of the 1.44 GB file size so loosing all of those samples in these early stages was good.

I also sorted the the issue regarding the missing Project folders and the .als files. You were right, I was saving projects into another project file. Also the reason why I also had some project folders and not others was because they were imported from previous versions of Live.

Thanks again. G.

[stxlm]

the library is a project

Thank you, pepezabala. This phrase should be in the manual.

I have been using Live for four months, and didn't realise this - despite the big hint provided by the folder graphic being the same.

I'm an avid reader of manuals, but it wasn't clear to me. This is what I found:

"Sets must be saved inside projects, so that Live can keep track of
and manage all of the various components of the Live Set: Live Clips, device presets, any samples used, etc." (Section 5.5, p. 52)

"When you save a Live Set under a new name or in a new folder location, Live will create a
new project folder and store the Live Set there unless you are saving the Live Set into an
existing Live Project." (Section 5.6.1, p. 57)

To me, it felt very natural to create a folder called "My Sets" in the Library and save everything there.
I never bothered with project folders until I had to share a set.

[Simbosan]

Freeze/Flatten is a good way to create wavs for instruments that you do not share in common, NB: Dont forget that Flatten is destructive, you need to keep a copy of the original midi track somewhere