Long standing bug with Render/Export paths

[pmn]

This is a very old bug still present in Waveform
Waveform Version 11.5.18 (Built: 12 July 2021) (64-bit)
Waveform Pro:

In my current project, comped and audio tracks are - for no good reason - ending up in the "Exported" folder and exported tracks are being saved in the "Rendered folder". This is the wrong way around. The destination for rendered and exported still seems to be largely random chance.

The files are in a mess and I've learned that if I move them manually, things break within the project.

It's a real annoyance.

[alejandrozalaquett]

+1

It's a real annoyance!

[pmn]

PLEASE fix this bug. It's happening again.

I'm trying to prune the old versions of exports and it's a minefield.

Recorded audio files and imported audio files should NOT be appearing in 'Exported', and exported files should not be appearing in 'Rendered'

Thank you.

[spoontechnique]

I've also experienced this bug! Since I only export finished projects, I only use export once every few months, so I thought I was bungling the settings.

I've only ever had Exported files appear in the Rendered folder, though, never Rendered files appear in the Exported folder.

[pmn]

This is a showstopper bug.

Look at my attached screenshot - Waveform cannot find the file that contains the audio clip because it's not where it expects it to be. You can see from Explorer, that there is NOTHING in the 'rendered' folder.

The audio clip that needs to be rendered somehow got stored in the wrong place and now Waveform cannot find it to process it with its flatten or render function.

If I move the file to 'Recordings' , this would break the project. I'm stuck now.

It's a serious bug when you need to render/flatten clips.

Sometimes when you attempt to flatten or render an audio clip, the process dialog box shows but never makes any progress and has to be cancelled. When you see this, you know the audio clip has been stored in the wrong place.


PLEASE fix this bug!

[imstre]

Hi,
everything works right for me.
you must specify a directory.

2021-11-24_07-42-36.png

[pmn]

Hi,
everything works right for me.
you must specify a directory.
2021-11-24_07-42-36.png

Thanks for replying.
I've noticed this quirk when rendering. It ignores the 'project default' setting and requires you to click the box and choose 'project default' to correctly change it to 'Exported'. It would be nice if this default was set by default.

But that's just to render a completed project.

The big problem is when audio clips/recordings are stored in the wrong folder. When this happens, flattening clips or rendering clips (e.g. after time-stretching or adding clip-effects) becomes impossible as Waveform cannot find the clip to render. The flatten/clip render process dialog box appears but does not start and will stay at zero % until you cancel the flatten/render clip task.
In short, it doesn't work.

Look at my screenshot - I'm unable to process an audio clip (which exists and I can hear on playback) because Waveform has put it in the wrong place and the rendering process can't find it.
Waveform is telling me that the clip isn't there, but it clearly is there as it's played on playback.
I'm stuck at this point and don't know how to fix it.

When I try to 'flatten clip' or 'render clip', sometimes the process just hangs there at 0 percent and has to be cancelled. At this point I know that Waveform has put the audio clip in the wrong place (usually the 'Exported' folder)

[Peter Widdicombe]

I wonder if it has something to do with your history with Waveform. I don't think I'd ever rendered a clip before (Exported, yes; rendered no); and just did so; and it DID go into the Rendered area, not into exported. Now, I've had Waveform and Tracktion for years, and may be running on defaults in a settings file that may have existed from previous versions...
Windows 10. Waveform 11.

[pmn]

I wonder if it has something to do with your history with Waveform. I don't think I'd ever rendered a clip before (Exported, yes; rendered no); and just did so; and it DID go into the Rendered area, not into exported. Now, I've had Waveform and Tracktion for years, and may be running on defaults in a settings file that may have existed from previous versions...
Windows 10. Waveform 11.

I've been using Waveform since it was Tracktion 4 on both Linux and Windows. This computer is about 2 years old and is Windows 10. I needed Windows for Ozone, but my next computer will be a Mac.
But anyway....

I have more info on the problem.
For some reason, when I dragged into Waveform a vocal take emailed to me by my singer, Waveform decided to put it into 'Exports' folder, NOT the 'imports' folder.
Now that that's happened, every render or flatten attempt fails completely - the flatten dialogue box shows up but 0% progress forever until it is cancelled.

So as a check, I created a fresh project and did the same thing, but this time the file ended up correctly in the 'imported' folder. I can apply clip effects and flatten the clip on this fresh project.

It could be a random bug, or from factors I haven't yet discovered.

So it would seem that dragging a file into Waveform from Explorer doesn't always cause the file to be saved in 'Imports'. If Waveform saves it in 'Exports' the project still plays and you can edit it, but you can't do any render or flatten operations on that audio clip.
If you don't do much rendering or flattening clips (for example you might apply time stretching then want to render the clip), you're not going to notice this bug.