Ableton Forum

after a few years using ableton for programming & composition I've just started djing with it. my question is this. whenever I load an mp3 into my set it creates a .wav file (which is wierd in itself since I'm on a mac I'd assume it'd be a .aiff but whatever...) in ableton/live recordings/decoding cache.
can I just delete all these files to save space? or will does it need these files as reference points? if it's the latter can I delete the mp3's from my hard drive?
in case you hadn't guessed already I'm obssessvely putting my digital house in order.

Hi,

Live has to convert tracks because it is able to work with a lot of tracks at once, which would not allow on the fly conversion.
If you have set a limited for the cache folder, tracks will automatically be deleted as you add some new tracks to the set, given that you remove the earliest ones. There is a "cleanup" button in the Preferences, File/Folder tab that empties the cache for you, if you need to.

Regards,
Amaury

Live converts mp3s to wavs and uses that...so yes, you could have only the wav and not the mp3 on your drive. But if you do that, you probably want to keep the wav somewhere besides your decoding cache folder, so Live doesn't accidentally delete your only copy!

chrysalis33rpm wrote:Live converts mp3s to wavs and uses that...so yes, you could have only the wav and not the mp3 on your drive. But if you do that, you probably want to keep the wav somewhere besides your decoding cache folder, so Live doesn't accidentally delete your only copy!

Hi,

that's right. The decoding cache is only a temporary folder, it is no place to keep data. If you mean to use Wav files instead of mp3, you should convert them and store them in a safe place on your HDD.

Regards,
Amaury

thanks guys.