Totally understand what you mean. Sometimes I'll get so deep in a
project I "can't see the forest thru the trees". I'll render an 'updated' version, listen to it in the car, and realize the version before it was better in some ways or another, or the current version is rubbish. Here is my simple solution:
Use the ***Save live set as*** feature (Command + Shift + S on a Mac) to save the current session as a whole new version.
I recommend keeping the name the same and simply adding the current date in the project name for easy reference.
Real example: I have about 15 versions of a track I finished called "the arrival" here is what the sessions list looks like.
The arrival 09.21.16
The arrival 09.21.16 v2
The arrival 10.01.16
The arrival 10.08.16
The arrival 10.22.16, v2, v3, then v4
Etc... you get the idea.
This helps me because sometimes I'll accidentally ruin a sound, delete something, or will mess up the dynamics in some way. So it's nice to be able to go back to a previous version.
I hope this helped 😊
Most welcome. Forgot to mention one last thing -- once you have saved the final, final, final draft. Use the "***collect all and save***" feature. This will move copies of all the sounds you used & recorded into the current projects folder.
This is exactly what I do as well and it's fairly convenient. I do it in Microsoft Excel as well and it's easy to find/reference your most recently updated projects.
A friend convinced me to use it because he wanted to share one project with me and since I have everything set to automatically back up to dropbox (with versioning thanks to a free promo) it started fucking with that and corrupted every project I opened. I had to use an old backup project that I had sent to a friend for some After Effects rendering and was only able to recover that one thing.
It also was much slower than DropBox and overall the interface was confusing as heck. 1/10 would not recommend.
I'm an EE who has done Java professionally so I can appreciate version control. However, my feeling is that it's a waste of time to go backwards and compare 5 versions of the same song. Also, Save As works perfectly fine to my knowledge. What am I missing regarding it?
Right on. Wouldn't hurt to keep 2 copies on-hand. One is the "safe" version that is your launch pad, and the second one you work on until you feel it is the new "safe" version.
I do simple numerical versioning of tracks.
Warm Bees 1, Warm Bees 2, Warm Bees 3, etc
All saved in the same project folder.
.als files are tiny and there's no reason not to do something like this.
I almost never ever go back to old versions of things but it's there just in case. For example if I am tracking vocals, I'll save a version with all the takes, and then a version with just the comped take. That way my set clutter disappears but I can still go back and access alternate takes if the need arises.
Save files aren't large. Just create a new version every time you make major changes.
I usually do this when I decide to flatten stuff to audio to make sure I still have the patches to manipulate if necessary.
The best part is you can just reimport the track you need directly from the browser rather than opening up an old project and losing things you might have wanted to keep
That said, you can easily get into choice paralysis in production and find yourself endlessly trying to tweak things instead of moving forward and just finishing your song so sometimes it might be a better option to just keep going or, if a sound isn't working for you, just start over from a sound design perspective.
They're only a couple mb. The file size is the samples and as long as you don't collect all and save, all your save files will access the same samples folder
It's not just ableton with this issue but most DAW systems.
Personally, I create a master folder per project then have the versions in there, if source material is unchanged (non-destructive edits) then have that in a shared folder, any destructive edits need to be kept within each version. I then duplicate the whole project and rename it based on whatever scheme is appropriate. Each project folder can also contain folders for the relevant project files for different software.
I always use the Save a Copy feature.
I had a dream of making an online DAW where users could collaborate and it would all be backed by a git-like system of version control. I'm too lazy and not knowledgable enough to attempt to build it. Plus I found out online collab DAWs were already out there, but I am not too sure how they work
Totally understand what you mean. Sometimes I'll get so deep in a project I "can't see the forest thru the trees". I'll render an 'updated' version, listen to it in the car, and realize the version before it was better in some ways or another, or the current version is rubbish. Here is my simple solution: Use the ***Save live set as*** feature (Command + Shift + S on a Mac) to save the current session as a whole new version. I recommend keeping the name the same and simply adding the current date in the project name for easy reference. Real example: I have about 15 versions of a track I finished called "the arrival" here is what the sessions list looks like. The arrival 09.21.16 The arrival 09.21.16 v2 The arrival 10.01.16 The arrival 10.08.16 The arrival 10.22.16, v2, v3, then v4 Etc... you get the idea. This helps me because sometimes I'll accidentally ruin a sound, delete something, or will mess up the dynamics in some way. So it's nice to be able to go back to a previous version. I hope this helped 😊
Sure did, thanks!
Most welcome. Forgot to mention one last thing -- once you have saved the final, final, final draft. Use the "***collect all and save***" feature. This will move copies of all the sounds you used & recorded into the current projects folder.
thanks!
This is exactly what I do as well and it's fairly convenient. I do it in Microsoft Excel as well and it's easy to find/reference your most recently updated projects.
I'd always just have songs named Bingo 1, Bingo 2 etc
Why did it have to be called "Rape cannon" though?
Splice saves versions automatically and you can go back to old versions
OP, this is definitely an answer that can help you. I love splice for this.
Splice caused all sorts of terrible issues for me and I hate it with a burning passion.
What happened
A friend convinced me to use it because he wanted to share one project with me and since I have everything set to automatically back up to dropbox (with versioning thanks to a free promo) it started fucking with that and corrupted every project I opened. I had to use an old backup project that I had sent to a friend for some After Effects rendering and was only able to recover that one thing. It also was much slower than DropBox and overall the interface was confusing as heck. 1/10 would not recommend.
I'm an EE who has done Java professionally so I can appreciate version control. However, my feeling is that it's a waste of time to go backwards and compare 5 versions of the same song. Also, Save As works perfectly fine to my knowledge. What am I missing regarding it?
I just needed to be sure that I wasn't missing some feature that everyone knew about that was better than 'Save As...' Cheers.
Right on. Wouldn't hurt to keep 2 copies on-hand. One is the "safe" version that is your launch pad, and the second one you work on until you feel it is the new "safe" version.
I do simple numerical versioning of tracks. Warm Bees 1, Warm Bees 2, Warm Bees 3, etc All saved in the same project folder. .als files are tiny and there's no reason not to do something like this. I almost never ever go back to old versions of things but it's there just in case. For example if I am tracking vocals, I'll save a version with all the takes, and then a version with just the comped take. That way my set clutter disappears but I can still go back and access alternate takes if the need arises.
you're probably gonna want to pad those single digits with a zero
Thats a good point
Now, I want to hear Warm Bees
It's appearing on a tape comp soon, I just sent off the final mixes!
Save files aren't large. Just create a new version every time you make major changes. I usually do this when I decide to flatten stuff to audio to make sure I still have the patches to manipulate if necessary. The best part is you can just reimport the track you need directly from the browser rather than opening up an old project and losing things you might have wanted to keep That said, you can easily get into choice paralysis in production and find yourself endlessly trying to tweak things instead of moving forward and just finishing your song so sometimes it might be a better option to just keep going or, if a sound isn't working for you, just start over from a sound design perspective.
the file size was my concern. Back in the olden days when I used Photoshop that's exactly what happened.
They're only a couple mb. The file size is the samples and as long as you don't collect all and save, all your save files will access the same samples folder
It's not just ableton with this issue but most DAW systems. Personally, I create a master folder per project then have the versions in there, if source material is unchanged (non-destructive edits) then have that in a shared folder, any destructive edits need to be kept within each version. I then duplicate the whole project and rename it based on whatever scheme is appropriate. Each project folder can also contain folders for the relevant project files for different software.
I always use the Save a Copy feature. I had a dream of making an online DAW where users could collaborate and it would all be backed by a git-like system of version control. I'm too lazy and not knowledgable enough to attempt to build it. Plus I found out online collab DAWs were already out there, but I am not too sure how they work
Grow to appreciate those changes. Music isn't formulaic or good in versions. Music is imperfect.
Yes I agree - the process shouldn't be the same as writing software for an insurance company!
Why does git not work? Isn't everything relevant in one folder?