Hard drive relief - version saving and content storage options

[joeyluck]

I'm a Reason fan, but it is easily the most egregious of the software I use when it comes to the handling of disk space Just about every which way I can think of when it comes to the way in which things are stored, Reason doesn't offer any of the flexibility that other software does. I would like to see all of these options at some point

• Version saving - Reason files self-containing audio is certainly handy in some cases, but if you've ever worked on a project and found yourself saving versions, you will see it quickly eating up disk space, particularly for larger projects or just projects with many versions saved. It would be nice to be able to save versions of projects without duplicating the audio over and over.

• Choose Rack Extension location - I know some users (on Windows?) have had luck using symlinks. I'm on macOS and not sure if it's possible to do the same thing, but also with the amount of times I've run into issues with my RE license getting screwy, it's not something I really want to mess with. I've also not been able to upgrade all of my REs to hi-res because of the amount of REs I have and the disk space it would take. Having an option to simply define RE install location would be very helpful.

• Define content locations - The FSB gets bigger and bigger (which is great), but it simply takes up a lot of disk space. Also considering that when upgrading to a new version like R13, if you want to keep using R12 for for the time being for some ongoing projects, that's a separate large FSB you need to keep installed. The optional ReFills can technically be moved after being download (which is what I've done) and the same goes for sound packs. But of course it would be better to be able to define these locations.

• Locate and move content - going hand-in-hand with defining locations, being able to locate content rather than reinstall would be very helpful. R13 does a poor job with new content locations. So the Optional Content (ReFills and REs) are now stored in different folders for R13 than they were for R12. Companion gives you no option to locate and move, it just tells you they are missing and you simply have to reinstall. If like me you keep them installed in a different location, like an external drive, Companion will forever say that it's not installed. If you decide you are done with R12, deleting the app isn't going to remove all the content that is tucked away in folders that R13 isn't going to use. The R13 install does nothing to prompt this.

[Aquila]

Just an option to clear Reason's cache from time to time would also be nice

[Pepin]

For the first one, I think a "project" feature might be interesting. A project file could contain multiple songs files that share a pool of audio, samples, etc.
After opening the project, you could freely open/close the different song files within it.
The project file could still be entirely self contained, with the option to import and export independent song files from the project.

This would enable versioning but also generalize to other use cases.

[robussc]

You’ve seen this thread I’m sure?

viewtopic.php?f=4&t=7534648

The best option on Mac is to install the OS on a huge external drive. Thunderbolt speeds are more than capable for most projects.

You could also use git to implement some basic version control system. Just have to remember to commit your changes.

[Pepin]

Git can work for versioning if you're technically minded, but it's not necessarily a substitute for proper versioning if disk space is the main concern. If a small change to a song can drastically change the underlying file, then git's packing wouldn't be much help. I'm not familiar with how much a song file tends to change over time.

[robussc]

Git can work for versioning if you're technically minded, but it's not necessarily a substitute for proper versioning if disk space is the main concern. If a small change to a song can drastically change the underlying file, then git's packing wouldn't be much help. I'm not familiar with how much a song file tends to change over time.

good point.

[Quarmat]

(...) I would like to see all of these options at some point

This list is really well thought out and laid out, and I find myself agreeing on all points. Symlinks are an inconvenient, manual, laborious, and potentially huge clutter and leftovers creator and I am of the opinion that “Your Sound Faster™” also comes from “having a computer that doesn't flounder and slows down miserably because the paging file is overflowing”

[esme]

git is bad with binary files
cant store diffs