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File history (time machine) in win 8: worth exploring?

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40hz:
T'was a time when I was big on version control for music files. But I was coordinating with several dispersed people in those days.

Nowadays, I find it faster and easier to just get in the habit of being better organized. I use nested folders and am careful about naming files. I have a workflow and naming convention when I do any sort of creative work and have found it works far better (for me at least) than any VC software.

The trick to using a system like this is to forget you have a SAVE option after you create your initial project files. Once the original project files are created you use SAVE AS for everything that follows.

My organization is a series of folders by project, with files named meaningfully. My schema is kept simple by choice. You can go wild with hierarchies, but it's really not necessary or advisable.

Mine (based on how I work) is:

Project:
  Song
  Section/Part
  Track  
------------------
Status flag:
  Draft
  Final
  Alternate Take
------------------
Assets: (can either be part of a global resource library or specific to an individual project)
  Sequence/Pattern/Loop
  Sample/Patch/Instrument
  Audio
  
At the end of a session, I'll do a final "save as' to the project directory.

Project directories are sorted with most recent file on top since I'm usually most interested in (or working off) the last saved version.

The entire project directory gets synchronized to a backup directory least once per day as well as at the end of every work session.

This requires a little bit of discipline up front. But it soon becomes habit.

Maybe it's not fancy or automated. But when you're basically working by yourself, there isn't any good reason for allowing any more complexity than what you personally need. Because organizing and "getting ready"  can easily turn into an endless cycle of superfluous preparations to be creative, rather than something which facilitates creativity.

The thing to remember is that routines can be liberating - but only if you allow them to become routine. If you're constantly thinking about them (and tweaking them) then they're no longer routines - they're projects!

Just my :two: anyway. ;D

And that's about it. Works for me. :Thmbsup:

TaoPhoenix:

I do a modest amount of version control myself on my little projects, but I use the filename to do it. I don't have any master system - it moves around from project to project.

I'll use regular save for each change to the "main trunk" just because the slight chance of a botch would destroy it without saving in a bunch of say 12 steps to create the starter file.

But then yes, I go heavily into "Save As" land. I use a mix of descriptive text and number-letter codes. So for a little project like modifying Steve Perry's song Oh Sherry I'd end up with a whole suite of drafts such as:

OhSherry
OhSherry Cut1 (such as removing dead time or maybe a radio announcer from a radio copy)
OhSherry Cut1 SpdDn25%
OhSherry Cut1 SpdDn25% Echo 4-4 (4 ms delay, 4 ms length of echo)
OhSherry Cut1 SpdDn25% Echo 4-4 PitchDn15%

urlwolf:
No ofense, but version control by changing the file name is a really bad practice. Pervasive, but not practical. You cannot keep the graph perfectly on filenames, and there's no clear path to any state.

This is a known practice in science, and the messes it leaves behind are legendary:

http://www.phdcomics.com/comics.php?f=1323

What I'd love to have is something like this, but for daw files:

http://kb.vmware.com/Platform/Publishing/images/1009402-WS-SnapshotManager.jpg

superboyac:
I pretty much do what 40hz described also.  A while back, I went through some version control investigations (probably have some threads here about it) but found nothing to work well enough for my tastes.  So now it's pretty manual, and routine as 40 says.  I do use Syncovery pretty heavily for the backup-synchronization.

40hz:
No ofense, but version control by changing the file name is a really bad practice. Pervasive, but not practical. -urlwolf (April 15, 2013, 01:24 PM)
--- End quote ---

No offense taken. All I can say is that it works splendidly for me. And has been doing so for quite some time - as it has for several other musicians I know. And it's not so much changing the file names as my adding a number at the end of it. (ex: SongOutremer0001, SongOutremer0002, SectionOutremerViolins0001, etc.) But we routinely memorize and employ elaborate chord and melodic sequences - and tend to see and use patterns for everything. Maybe it has something to do with the musical mindset?

This is a known practice in science, and the messes it leaves behind are legendary:
--- End quote ---

Can't speak for science, not being a scientist. (Closest I come to that is maybe being somewhat of an engineer.) But I'm not talking about doing science here. I'm speaking about doing art. ;)

In the end, it's definitely whatever works best for you. I grew up before personal computers and digital assistants were the norm and possibly are now necessary for some people. So my synapses are probably wired differently than the next generation, which provides for different mental strengths, preferences - and weaknesses - as a result.
 :)

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