File length changes (intermittent header corruption?)

Sorry if my subject line is not clear enough. I'm not sure how to even describe this problem it just gets more bizarre the more I troubleshoot it. I do long form narration (a long with other audio/video work) and ever since switching to Logic from Soundtrack Pro I've intermittently had to deal with corruption that results in a series of errors when I load a project about file lengths changing.

 

At first I thought it was corruption in the project file (and that is what it seemed in the case of past projects). In fact, in the past I would create a brand new project and just copy the tracks into the new project and that seemed to fix it in most cases. With my current project (in which I've recorded 10 out of 14 hours of audio) the actual files are now truncated. The audio data is all there but the headers seem to be corrupt. I've been working on this project for over a week--opening & closing logic to work on other projects, shutting the computer down, etc.--and never had problems. In the past what seemed to work is merging all the final takes of each segment into a single audio file/region. However, event that does not seemed to have staved off whatever is eating my files.

 

Has anyone else had this problem? Know of a solution?! i'd love some help restoring the corrupted files but mostly understanding the problem and how to avoid it in the future.

 

Mac Pro Quad 2.66ghz 24GB RAM Logic 9.1.8

Were the files recorded in Logic Pro?

I see the file is a wav file - what bit rate? what sample rate? Is this a PCM file? How long is the file and what is its size?

 

Also and probably most importantly: have you ever used any software other than Logic to work on those files? Like another audio editing software? And in Logic, have created several versions of the project (for example using File > Save As...) or are those audio files used exclusively by a single Logic project?

Yes, everything was recorded in Logic Pro. All the files are (or should be) 24bit 44.1khz. I believe PCM. #540 is a fairly short take (<5min). The bigger problem are the slew of other files that are now truncated.

 

I did used Soundtrack Pro (via the external editor function in Logic) to edit one region/file used in the project but NOT all the affected files. There was a previous version of this project but when I saved the new version I consolidated all the files and the project worked fine.

I did used Soundtrack Pro (via the external editor function in Logic) to edit one region/file used in the project but NOT all the affected files. There was a previous version of this project but when I saved the new version I consolidated all the files and the project worked fine.

 

Ok I was asking because that alert should normally only occur if you're editing the file with some other software without Logic's knowledge.

 

What else could it be... What kind of hard drive were the files recorded onto, and is it the same hard drive the files currently reside on? How is that hard drive formatted?

The project lives on a RAIDZ volume. I believe they were recorded there as well.

RAID is not recommended for storing your project folders including your audio files.

 

In any case I would recommend you get rid of that RAID-Z volume and use a normal 7,200rpm hard drive formatted to Mac OS X Extended (Unjournaled) with no partitioning.

Is that really what could be causing this file corruption? That sounds strange to me but I admit I'm very new to Logic.

It could be. I still don't know how you've formatted that drive though? The drive needs to be formatted for Mac OS X Extended, otherwise that could very well be the reason for your issue.

What kind of RAID system is it?

What kind of RAID system is it?

 

RAIDZ1. Works like a champ for everything (at least it seemed to) and I've avoided the corruption that in my experience plagues HFS in all its varieties. Still if that's what is causing the problem I can juggle drive assignments and use the RAID as a timemachine style backup to an unjournaled HFS drive. Not ideal in my mind but if that's what Logic wants that's what Logic gets.

 

Any suggestions on recovering the corrupted project or at least the WAV files with the bad headers? I had to go out of town for a few days and I'd rather not re-record and re-work the hours and hours that seem to be missing currently.

How do you connect to it?

SATA or network?

I used ethernet to a dedicated file server for several years (although I wasn't using Logic much then) and never had trouble. I have everything internally connected with SATA in my Mac Pro now. The problem seems oddly intermittent and many Logic projects work fine. This project is quiet large and very long. Does Logic have known issues with long or large projects?

Joel, you still haven't answered me: what is the format of your drive? If it's HFS as you mentioned then that's not the correct formatting for drives to use with Logic, I recommend HFS+ (Mac OS X Extended).

 

You can check the format of your volumes by looking at them in Disk Utility in /Applications/Utilities/.

sorry to resurrect this thread but having similar issues with Logic Pro X...I recorded it onto an external SSD Drive via USB 3.0 and the SSD is formatted as MS-DOS (FAT32)

 

I'm assuming my issue is that the format of the drive I recorded onto is in the wrong format...So if I backup my SSD and reformat it to Mac OS X Extended then copy the backup onto the newly formatted SSD....my session should open it fine?

 

Thanks, will post results!

Yes. That is exactly what you need to do.

Chime in again and tell us how it panned out.

So I just backup'd my projects and erased and reformatted the external SSD to Mac OS X Extended. Put the Projects back on to the same external SSD and still getting errors which are attached.

 

My guess is now that it's a corrupt project file? The project itself is pretty large with ALOT of recording takes. One of the bigger ones I've done this year. Crossing my fingers on this one...its a writing/recording session I did with the Biebz lol

 

I appreciate the fast response!

Mik of The Messengers

I also tried opening the project from another external HD (Where I backed up the external SSD)....still the same issue. Also tried copying the project to my MBPr 's SSD and still having the same issues. I also tried going to "revert to" and picking a back up version from last night that worked perfectly but the next day, out of no where, the project just started giving me these issues. I also noted that when I opened the project from my External HD, internal SSD, or external SSD...the amount of audio files changed in length varied...idk what that exactly means but figured I should point that out..

In the mean time I've been just trying to work with the session and just rebuilding the arrangement within but every time I try to edit a audio region that's been changed in length...i get this error sometimes....

Also tried importing the project into a new session...pretty much command A to highlight everything, made sure all content, plugins, sends, I/O, and automation were checked and added it to the new session...

 

I did not get any errors as far as audio length changes but seems that some of the recording takes (crucial comps) are corrupt and reading it in a 8-bit format.

 

Attached below are my new errors when I imported the session into a new session...

any suggestions? :/

Have you checked if the problematic files are in the project audio browser anyway?

RAID is not recommended for storing your project folders including your audio files.

 

In any case I would recommend you get rid of that RAID-Z volume and use a normal 7,200rpm hard drive formatted to Mac OS X Extended (Unjournaled) with no partitioning.

 

Hello, thank goodness I came across this thread. I'm was having trouble storing my Logic Projects to a AVID shared storage system.

How does Logic implement redundancy though?

 

Thank you.

...

How does Logic implement redundancy though?

Perhaps the Project Managements features?

How does Logic implement redundancy though?

It doesn't. RAID are transparent to the software that uses it, it looks just like a single drive.

How does Logic implement redundancy though?

It doesn't. RAID are transparent to the software that uses it, it looks just like a single drive.

 

So technically, it's not possible to store my LOGIC Project Files on the AVID ISIS 5000 that we have at work and just retrieve from there?

Is the storage connected via Ethernet or does it use a separate protocol?

Is the storage connected via Ethernet or does it use a separate protocol?

 

Yes. It is connected through ethernet cable. And I think the storage is Windows Formatted.

I see that you opened a separate thread. That's the way to do it!

I'll reply in that thread instead.