Shrinking large Reason projects

Have an urge to learn, or a calling to teach? Want to share some useful Youtube videos? Do it here!
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raymondh
Posts: 1776
Joined: 15 Jan 2015

17 Jan 2015

Hi everyone

Here is a great tip I learned from Mattias.

The problem: when you record a bunch of audio into a Reason (vocals or external synths for example), the file size increases dramatically. Before you know it, you have a file that is hundreds of Megabyes.
If you are collaborating, big files are a pain, they fill up your dropbox or whatever cloud space you are using, and they take ages to transfer.
So you expect to optimse the file size by getting the razor tool and cutting out all the audio segments where there is no sound. Then you choose optimise and save but the file doesnt really reduce?

Here is the solution:

If you trim a clip, you can right-click and select "Bounce Clip to new Recording" which bounces your trimmed section to a new lane in the clip. After that, you can right-click and select "Delete Unused Recordings".

Enjoy :)




Heater
Posts: 893
Joined: 16 Jan 2015

17 Jan 2015

It's a good tip.  Thanks.

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offaxisdaddy
Posts: 57
Joined: 16 Jan 2015

17 Jan 2015

Excellent tip! This will save me some space for sure. The one thing that has always been a thorn in my side when using Reason is the way the software saves songs as a whole. I would love to see the ability to save different mix set-ups along the way without having to eat so much space by repeatedly saving the same audio. 

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djfm1983
Posts: 87
Joined: 16 Jan 2015

17 Jan 2015

I had no idea how to save space within a Reason song. Thanks for the tip. I recorded a band and used about 48 tracks and the song file is so huge! This will help me out so much.
soundcloud.com/djfm1983

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ionly
Posts: 305
Joined: 15 Jan 2015

17 Jan 2015

Thanks for that,
now I'm going to troll back through the hundred or so strangled by this issue and sort 'em - I have some files of 5/6gb bursting at the seams, and will not even play. And that was even after bouncing to a new song...eek.

Cheers :D

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tt_lab
Posts: 335
Joined: 15 Jan 2015

17 Jan 2015

Nice one...thx...Always have this problem...now I kniw how to fix it

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LudvigC
Reason Studios
Posts: 93
Joined: 16 Jan 2015

19 Jan 2015

If you trim a clip, you can right-click and select "Bounce Clip to new Recording" which bounces your trimmed section to a new lane in the clip. After that, you can right-click and select "Delete Unused Recordings". 
Don't forget to use "Save and Optimize" afterwards (or Save As to another filename).

Reason for this: Delete Unused Recordings removes audio data that is no longer used. This can leave "holes" in the song file structure where the audio used to be. Save and Optimize re-packs the song, removing the holes and making the file as compact as possible.

/ LudvigC

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tt_lab
Posts: 335
Joined: 15 Jan 2015

19 Jan 2015

Good to know too. thx Ludvig

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FATCheese
Posts: 196
Joined: 17 Jan 2015

24 Jan 2015

I actually had to look up this tip again because I really need it now!

File atm 1,4 GB! :shock:
Follow me on twitter! http://www.twitter.com/realfatcheese

And remember, blessed are the cheesemakers, and any manufacturers of dairy-based music !

Hell yeah E., you're a "cheesius".

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FATCheese
Posts: 196
Joined: 17 Jan 2015

24 Jan 2015

WTF!!!

It's now actually 400 megabytes bigger! 1,8 GB!!! :shock: :shock: :shock:   :m0358:
Follow me on twitter! http://www.twitter.com/realfatcheese

And remember, blessed are the cheesemakers, and any manufacturers of dairy-based music !

Hell yeah E., you're a "cheesius".

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FATCheese
Posts: 196
Joined: 17 Jan 2015

24 Jan 2015

Ok. This is really :s0959:

Forgot to delete unused recordings! File size is now 428 megabytes! :s0221:
Follow me on twitter! http://www.twitter.com/realfatcheese

And remember, blessed are the cheesemakers, and any manufacturers of dairy-based music !

Hell yeah E., you're a "cheesius".

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challism
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Location: Fanboy Shill, Boomertown

02 Feb 2015

Great tips.  Thanks for posting.
Players are to MIDI what synthesizers are to waveforms.

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raymondh
Posts: 1776
Joined: 15 Jan 2015

02 Feb 2015

FATCheese wrote:Ok. This is really :s0959:

Forgot to delete unused recordings! File size is now 428 megabytes! :s0221:
haha! brilliant!

Glad it made such a difference :)


avasopht
Competition Winner
Posts: 3931
Joined: 16 Jan 2015

02 Feb 2015

Shrinking large projects? I'm still struggling to grow my small Reason projects ;)

irongiant14
Posts: 15
Joined: 01 Nov 2019

06 Nov 2019

LudvigC wrote:
19 Jan 2015

Don't forget to use "Save and Optimize" afterwards (or Save As to another filename).

Reason for this: Delete Unused Recordings removes audio data that is no longer used. This can leave "holes" in the song file structure where the audio used to be. Save and Optimize re-packs the song, removing the holes and making the file as compact as possible.

/ LudvigC
Thanks, LudvigC! Your tip was the one relative to my question. I deleted takes, in the comp editor, and saw no file size reduction. Save and Optimize brought down the file size. :thumbs_up:

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moneykube
Posts: 3447
Joined: 15 Jan 2015

06 Nov 2019

FATCheese wrote:
24 Jan 2015
Ok. This is really :s0959:

Forgot to delete unused recordings! File size is now 428 megabytes! :s0221:
so save and optimize does not delete unused recordings???
https://soundcloud.com/moneykube-qube/s ... d-playlist
Proud Member Of The Awesome League Of Perpetuals

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BRIGGS
Posts: 2132
Joined: 25 Sep 2015
Location: Orange County California

06 Nov 2019

:?: Does file compression like winzip/rar/7zip, do any good for this?
r11s

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motuscott
Posts: 3420
Joined: 16 Jan 2015
Location: Contest Weiner

06 Nov 2019

Sticky!
Next up, reducing the file size of my ego.
Who’s using the royal plural now baby? 🧂

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Oquasec
Posts: 2849
Joined: 05 Mar 2017

08 Nov 2019

Just buy an ntfs sd card or ssd.
Those things are fast as shit at 70$ for 500gb
Producer/Programmer.
Reason, FLS and Cubase NFR user.

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