Hi - ProTools HD9, Max OSX 10.6.4, Melodyne v1.2.1

When I open a session in which I've done previous work with the Melodyne plugin, as the session opens, Melodyne creates a few folders on my desktop full of XML, names like: "1E6A5FE3-DD38-402B-8A9F-09EF399E5802", etc... I can delete these without creating problems, but at the end of a day of work I'll have 10 or 20 of these folders on my desktop - most annoying.

Melodyne prefs appear to be normal, and Melodyne transfer files are in the correct places in the session folder on the session's work drive.

What's going on here, and what can I do about it?

Thanks in advance,
rich

Hello Rich,

this is the Audio Cache folder. You can set its path in Melodyne's preferences.

Thanks Claudio - Surely this isn't normal behavior though to leave behind dozens of folders after use? I mean if left on it's own I'd have hundreds of folders after a week of work. Shouldn't Melodyne clean up after itself? Or is this normal? Seems a bit bizarre to me...

thanks,
rich

Rich,

it makes sense to keep the files, but you can also have Melodyne delete them, if you want. See the Managing files video for details.

OK, looked at this video; it's all about handling transfer files which is not a problem for me. You understand this is not about the transfer files (which are showing up in the correct place; the session folder), yes? These are folders which show up all over my desktop and do not contain any actual audio files. If these are cache files, why would Melodyne not just also place them in the session folder, and why would it not clean up after itself?

I guess I'll just continue to have to clean this up at the end of every day, but I'm not sure I understand the thinking behind this behavior if indeed it is the expected behavior.

best,
rich

Oops, sorry, I mixed it up. Now I see.

The Audio Cache is required by Melodyne for internal operation. You can safely delete the files in there, but then Melodyne must recreate them when you re-open an audio file, which would slow down the opening process. That's why they are not deleted automatically.

OK, thank Claudio - Well, now that we've established that it's not broken (although it never used to do this), I'll just say that I think it's a very odd way to have the program deal with these files. If indeed the cache files are better off being kept, then why not place them in the same folder with the rest of the transfer files? Most audio pros I know of keep large projects on distinct drives and rotate drives/projects out on a daily (or even hourly) basis. That means that your system drive (or some other local always-connected drive) ends up littered with these files for projects that are on other drives, or else long-closed or shipped off to another phase of the project, or else you're constantly having to re-assign to the project drive (which then needs to be reassigned every time you rotate in a new project). Why would you not just want the cache files for the project to travel with the project?

Just seems strange to me, and pretty inconvenient...

best,
rich

You can do this.

The first time you open an instance of the plugin, before doing any transfers, go to Settings > Preferences and set the path to the Audio Cache folder.

Yes, of course you can, and then you have to remember to change it *every* time you start working on a new song, or all these cache folders end up in the wrong place... Seems downright silly to me. Melodyne finally changed the behavior WRT assignment of the transfer files so we don't have to remember to re-assign every single time we start a new song, but now we have to deal with the cache files separately. Why? Doesn't make sense to me.

best,
rich

I guess I'm just used to working in Logic.
In Logic, neither the Transfer files nor the Audio Cache files are automatically saved to the Project folder. Both must be manually assigned.

It would be nice if both defaulted to the Project file (hint hint Celemony), but could be changed if necessary.

Ugh - it was that way for years with ProTools - always seemed bizarre to me; an invitation to screw up the file management... They've got it half-way fixed now...

best,
rich