One or multiple audio files changed in length!

[skylark]

Every so often I will see this message when I open a project;

Sometimes I find the file(s) readily but, sometimes --if it's a large project-- it takes a while, if I find it at all.

So my questions are...

(1) Why does this happen, and

(2) If LogicPro is smart enough to know this has happened, why doesn't it just fix it?

[David Nahmani]

8 hours ago, skylark said:

Why does this happen

This happens when you perform destructive audio editing on the audio file while you're outside of that Logic project. 

8 hours ago, skylark said:

If LogicPro is smart enough to know this has happened, why doesn't it just fix it?

Logic Pro can't fix the length of your audio file. 

Let's take an example. 

Imagine that you record your voice, counting seconds aloud "one, two, three, four" in Logic project A. The audio file me_counting.aif is 4 seconds long. In the Tracks area, you nondestructively resize the audio region so that you can only hear yourself saying "one". The audio region is now 1 second long (the audio file is still 4 seconds long). You save Logic project A and close it. 

Project A has saved the followinginformation: 

1. It has an audio region that refers to audio file me_counting.aif.
2. The audio file me_counting.aif is 4 seconds long. 
3. The audio region uses only the first second of the audio file.

Now you open a new Logic project (project B) and import me_counting.aif. In the audio file editor, you select the words "one, two" and choose Functions > Trim to destructively edit the file. me_counting.aif is now 2 seconds long and contains only the words "three, four". You close project B. 

Now you reopen project A. Project A doesn't recognize the 4 second length of me_counting.aif (and it doesn't know what audio data is in the file) anyway, so it throws that error. 

Note that the same can happen if you use any app other than Logic Pro to destructively edit an audio file used by a Logic Pro project. 

[polanoid]

2 hours ago, David Nahmani said:

This happens when you perform destructive audio editing on the audio file while you're outside of that Logic project. 

Unfortunately it will also happen if Logic (for whatever reason, could be identical file names in different folders) decides to use the wrong audio file when it cannot find the file at its expected location. I have seen this a few times.

[analogika]

4 hours ago, David Nahmani said:

This happens when you perform destructive audio editing on the audio file while you're outside of that Logic project. 

I get this a LOT, when I transfer Logic show files from my main studio machine to the show production machines. 

I used to get it all the time when I just copied the concert folder (about 20 Logic files created in 10.4.8) to my Samsung T5 (formatted MacOS Extended) and onto the show machines (two older MacBooks running Monterey and 10.4.8). 
That just started happening regularly at some point, but it stopped immediately once I began .zipping the folder before copying it, so I chalked it up to the T5 becoming unreliable.
It was never an issue when using AirDrop, but wireless environments are sometimes pretty congested, and AirDrop is really slow on those old machines. 

Then we replaced one of the machines with an M1 Air running Ventura and Logic 10.7.x, and I now get it every single time on specific projects — only on that machine. The other, still on Monterey and 10.4.8, loads them without complaining. 

When I dismiss the warning, the projects appear to run fine. 

Edited April 9 by analogika

[David Nahmani]

7 minutes ago, analogika said:

I chalked it up to the T5 becoming unreliable.

Is the T5 formatted for macOS Extended, or APFS? 

[analogika]

12 minutes ago, David Nahmani said:

Is the T5 formatted for macOS Extended, or APFS? 

I actually wrote that in my post 😉 , but I just checked again: MacOS Extended (Journaled)

[David Nahmani]

6 minutes ago, analogika said:

I actually wrote that in my post 😉

Whoops, missed it, my apologies. 

[skylark]

8 hours ago, David Nahmani said:

This happens when you perform destructive audio editing on the audio file while you're outside of that Logic project. 

This isn't happening in my case, David, but it does happen after a crash.

About 1 or 2 years ago my system started crashing, usually once or twice a day. This has never been more than a minor annoyance for me since I save with fanatical frequency, never lose more than one minute of work. When the Mac reboots I get the alert asking if I want to opt to resume using the AUTO-SAVED feature. I never do, opting to resume from my most recent manual save.

I've never performed any destructive editing while outside the project.

Thanks for all the ideas, though. It's only been a big deal once, but that was a doozy; I was met with a dozen tracks of backing vocals, each one shifted out of sync by a different amount. ‼️😬‼️