Reaper media files and memory

LastMantra

Hi guys,

Could someone please help a clueless amateur?

I'm trying to clear a bit of space on my "music" computer. What I'm finding is that Reaper is creating loads of files, back up files, project files that are using up loads of memory. There are even files there that are to do with projects that I deleted ages ago, all just named with numbers. I'm having to open them all individually with reaper to see what they are and it's going to take forever to go through them all. I opened one there and it was just a couple of seconds of silence! Is there anything I can do to stop this and get rid of the ones I don't need any more? It's not even just in the "Reaper media" folder, that appeared automatically when I installed the program, there's a lot of project files appearing in "my music" from when I've rendered anything to there. These project files aren't very big right enough but their just cluttering the place up. In the "Reaper media" folder there are a lot of old WAV files that are pretty big though. 

Is there any way I can easily get rid of them to reclaim some memory?

Thanks.

digitalscream

For a start...when you save a new project, tick the "Create a new project directory" and "Move all media into project directory" boxes - that'll keep each project self-contained, so you know where your drive space is going.

Secondly, you can click File -> Clean Project Directory at any time, and it'll give you a list of all the unused media files for the project and give you the option of deleting them.

ecc83

All DAW software creates "junk" files AFAIK. I use Samplitude and for every .wav part of a file saved it produces 3 others which in total about 1/10 the size of the .wav.

The files are not taking up "memory", they are filling up the hard drive. They will only get written to memory when you actually play them.

I suggest you buy an external hard drive. I have a 2TB USB 3.0 (£70 Maplin)  and going from internal HDD to USB 3 is very fast.

What I do is...Make folder in the USB drive (I have one e.g. called "pdf manuals), then make a shortcut for it, cut and paste that to the desktop. With the screen 1/2 minimized you can cut and paste the files pretty quickly.

When you are done, run a disk fragmenter on the internal drive.

I can access my USB drive all over my network, even on this wirelessly connected lappy but it is not of course nearly as fast as on the computer the drive is connected to.

Dave.

LastMantra

Ah, that's great guys, much appreciated.

I was getting in a bit of a confuzzle there!

Cheers.