The DijonStock Digital Home Recording Support Forum

Hi! I just had a thought about how to back up back-ups. Would it be possible to save back-up files on your computers hard drive and, then, if all goes wrong (The G crashes, you lose all the songs on the G's hard drive and the Back-up CD-RW doesn't work for some reason) you would still have a back-up of the back-up on your PC's (or Mac's) hard drive. No work lost.

Would this work? I can't see why not. Any of you tried/doing this?

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OKAY!!!

Hey Hakanen,

Never tried it, but I'm sure that - given the fact that you can import 2816-format files using awextract - it should be equally possible to just import the files onto your PC HDD.

I'd say... worth wasting one CD if against all odds it won't work.

Peace,

Michel

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Today's mighty oak is just yesterday's nut that held its ground

i have copies of backups on my PC in both formats.

Yeah, you might want to do a 2816 backup where you can at least retreive .wav files if the G goes belly-up.

I am trying to do just that, back up my songs on my PC, but am having problems.

I make a backup of 1 song (so it fits on one CD-RW), pop it into my PC and store the backup file there. That part works fine.

Now to test that I can recover the backed up song from the PC, I start with a new CD-RW. When I insert it into the PC it requires that I format it based on how I intend to use it...I choose the only reasonable option: "like a flash drive". After doing this and copying the backup file onto it, I insert teh CD-RW into AWG16 and try to do a restore. But the AWG16 can't read the CD-RW. Complains about the media.

I have also tried using a CD-RW that I erased using the AWG16 erase menu. But when I pop it into the PC it asks me to format it before I can copy files to it. SO, I am stuck again with formatting it and then the AWG16 won't take it.

How do I get the file off the PC and back into the AWG16 using a CD-RW?

Thx in advance!

Songs (Projects) can be backed up on to a cd, as a complete project. This will include all the tracks and the scenes you saved along with the project as it developed. Pop those back in the drive and you can restore a project and work on it again.

Also as Bob said, back in '06, you can use 2816 format too. this will extract wav files, but not any settings, so you would have to recreate the mix by reloading the saved wavs to a new project.

Did you ever try to restore the project from the CD RW to which you backed up the song? ie backup to disc > delete project from AW. > reload project from that disc (skipping the PC archive step)

I used a G for a bit a long time ago. I happen to have a project backed up on discs from those days. I will pop it into my PC to see what shows up so i might become more informed and be able to comment further. be advised that the 650 mb capacity of a single cd rw is not much space for a project and so many backups will therefore be multi disc.

The G will erase and format CD RW discs, if I recall correctly. You could format the disc in the G and then put that formatted, blank disc into the PC. If the PC recognizes it, copy your file to it and then take that back to the AW.?? Just musing >>>

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Byron

Thanks for your reply, Byron.

I am familiar with using CD-RWs to back up and restore songs on the AWG16. I've done that successfully several times. What was new to me was trying to take the CD-RW and copy the backup song onto a PC, then later retrieve that copy from the PC onto a new CD-RW, and then pop it into AWG16 and restore. (I wanted this extra copy in case my CD copy went bad or got lost).

So, I did some experimenting and I figured out what I was doing wrong. YEA!!!!! It had to do with how the PC formats the blank CD-RW.

When I put a blank CD-RW into the PC it asks me how do I want to use this CD-RW.
The choices it gives are:
(1) Use it like a Flash Drive. I.e., write and edit files on it just like any other removable drive or flash.
or
(2) Burn files onto it once like a CD/DVD player. I.e., cannot add or edit files to the disc this way.

I mistakenly chose the "Flash Drive" approach. This causes the PC to format the disc (takes a long time!!!) so it can be used in this fashion. This format works for the file systems used in PCs, but it makes the CD-RW unreadable by the AWG16!

I should have chosen the 2nd option, burn the backup song file onto the CD-RW like a CD/DVD. So when I tried it this way I was successful in getting the backup file off the PC onto the CD-RW, and then popping it into the AWG16 where it was able to read it and restore the song backup.

I guess I got confused about the CD/DVD burn choice the PC gave me. I was thinking it was only good for burning a CD to listen to on a CD player. Poor assumption on my part.
Anyway, problem solved.

Also...
I appreciate your comment that a single song may not necessarily fit onto a single disc. But I think I can still manage that by copying the multiple files over to PC and then keeping track of the order they need to be in when I bring them back.

Finally...
I am not familiar with the 2816 format. Why do people use that if it doesn't save all the settings? Just trying to understand if I am missing something here.

Thx!

If what you want are the tracks only, then 2816 is useful. If you are moving to a platform like proTools for instance.

I was immediately skeptical of your "flash drive" selection. I see your confusion with the cd/dvd option's name. I wondered when i read your post if "data disc" was an option, as some burning software names such. Data discs remain open until space is used up or the disc is finalized I think though.

I do recall the G requires a freshly formatted disc for each transaction. So RW are most economical, but require erasure and formatting each time. The USB on the 1600 and 2400 are very handy in that regard, but it is unfortunate that they lost the ability to burn a wav file to disc as data. So the occasional time when a computer is not available and you want to give a hard copy to someone of wav data from a session to carry home with them for further work on their platform, then it can't be done on those machines. Unless you mix down and burn the mix, but then you have a mix not the individual track files.

Post a sample of your stuff. Easy to do on the file share section of this forum, if you are not hooked up to any other platform to which you can share a link.

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Byron