VocAlign Ultra User Guide 1.2 Publication

Saving VocAlign Ultra’s Audio Data

This Chapter is ONLY for VST3 and AU Versions of VocAlign Ultra

Overview of Saving VocAlign Ultra Audio

	In this document, will use the word Session to mean what your DAW might refer to as a Project, Song, Session, et

When you use VocAlign Ultra it creates new audio files containing the processed audio that are used to replace the original Dub audio. So the VocAlign Ultra plug-in puts the audio first into its own directory on your hard disk, and it has connections to it so it knows where it is.

After you use this processed audio, technically there is no need to save the aligned audio to a cache, because VocAlign Ultra can always regenerate its aligned audio output. Nonetheless, regenerating the aligned audio takes time and this means that the audio may not be ready for replay when you reopen a project.

So saving the aligned audio data allows instant replay on reopening a session and this section is about the different ways this can be done.

In addition, VocAlign Ultra VST and AU versions give you the choice to make the processed audio part of your DAW’s Session audio by responding to commands like Render, Bounce to disk, Freeze etc. When you do this, your DAW will take over the audio, the connection to the audio and dealing with where it is kept and how it is saved.

In both cases, the processed audio (connected to VocAlign Ultra or rendered and connected to your DAW) must be saved somewhere known, so when you reopen your Session, everything processed will be there or be re-creatable.

This section explains that in both cases, these output audio files may become quite large and, therefore, VocAlign Ultra offers you two ways of saving them. You can choose either to:

Archive the audio data in the DAW’s session data or
Save the audio in a local directory on your computer.

Each method has its own advantages and drawbacks which will be explained next.

Archiving Audio in the DAW’s Session

Advantages

The DAW can manage VocAlign Ultra’s audio data such that the DAW’s filing operations such as “Save As..” or “Save to New Folder…” will all work seamlessly.
If you transfer your session to another computer, all VocAlign Ultra’s audio will also be transferred correctly.
If you remove VocAlign Ultra from your session, all VocAlign Ultra’s audio data will be deleted from your hard drive.

Disadvantages

It may take noticeably longer to save your sessions. The more audio data that VocAlign Ultra generates in a session, the longer it will take to save it in the DAW’s session.
However, for a typical session, the extra time needed to save the audio data on modern fast hard drive will be minimal.

Configuring VocAlign Ultra to Archive its Audio in the DAW’s Session

To configure VocALign Ultra so that it saves its audio data in the DAW’s session you are working on, you need to do the following:

In VocAlign Ultra, click on to open the Settings window shown in Fig.1 below.
Click the button next to Save Audio in Current Session so that it ON (yellow).
If you would also like all future Sessions to save their data in the DAW’s session, click the button next to Save Audio in New Sessions to be ON (yellow).
This acts like a “preference” setting for the plug-in whenever you open in future sessions.

Figure 1. Configuring VocAlign Ultra to archive its audio in the DAW's session.

Further detail

While you are working in a Session, you can turn the Save Audio in Current Session ON or OFF anytime and that will control how that session is saved.

If the Save Audio in New Sessions was set ON prior to your using VocAlign Ultra, when you open VocAlign Ultra, the Save Audio in Current Session switch will already be ON.

The Real-Time Capture version of VocALign Ultra (AU) cannot save its audio in Logic Pro’s project file..

Only the AU (ARA) version can do this. This means that for VocAlign Ultra (AU) you’ll not be able to select the option Save Audio in Current Session in the settings dialogue box.

Saving Audio to a Local Directory

Advantages

Saving sessions is not any slower than normal.

If you close the DAW session and restart, the session will find the audio unless you move or delete it.

Disadvantages

The DAW cannot manage VocAlign Ultra’s audio data. The DAW operations such as “Save As..” or “Save to New Folder...” will not generate new copies of VocAlign Ultra’s Audio data if they are needed.
If you transfer your session to another computer, VocAlign Ultra’s audio will not be transferred as well.
If you remove VocAlign Ultra from your session, all VocAlign Ultra’s audio data will still remain on your hard drive.

Configuring VocAlign Ultra to Save its Audio to a Local Directory

To configure VocALign Ultra so that it saves its audio data to a local directory, you need to do the following:

In VocAlign Ultra, click on to open the Settings window shown in Fig.2 below.
Turn OFF the Save Audio in Current Session switch if it is already ON.
If you would like all future Sessions you create to save their audio to a local directory, you need to make sure that Save Audio in New Session is also OFF.

Figure 2. Configuring VocAlign Ultra to save its audio to a local directory.

Please Note:

If you are using Logic Pro, only the AU (ARA) version of VocAlign Ultra (AU) can archive its audio data in Logic Pro’s session.
The Real-time Capture AU version of VocAlign Ultra will always save its audio data to the local directory.
This restriction does not apply to the VST3 version of the plug-in.

Location of VocAlign Ultra’s Local Directories

You can configure VocALign Ultra to save its audio to a local directory on your hard drive. The location this directory depends on both which version of VocAlign Ultra and which operating system you are using:

VocAlign Ultra (VST)

MacOS

The local directory’s location is: “/Users/CurrentUser/Music/VocAlignUltraVst3/..”

Windows 10

The local directory’s location is: “DriveLetter:\Users\CurrentUser\Documents\VocAlignUltraVst3\..”

VocAlign Ultra (AU)

The local directory’s location is: “/Users/CurrentUser/Music/VocAlignUltraAU/..”

Structure of VocAlign Ultra's Local Directory

VocAlign Ultra will save audio data to its local directory when you have chosen not to save the audio data in the DAW’s session.

Note that the User cannot change this directory location.

VocAlign Ultra (Real-Time capture)

VocAlign Ultra will create In its local directory, a subdirectory for each new DAW session. In this subdirectory, VocAlign Ultra will save its “captured” Guide and Dub audio and any aligned (processed) audio that it generates. See examples in Fig.3 below.

Figure 3. Example of VocAlign Ultra's local audio directory

The subdirectory’s name has the form “year-month-day hours-minutes-seconds (count)”. For example, the directory “2021-02-01 16-28-56 0” was created on 1^st February 2021 at 16.28.56 (4.28 p.m.) The “Count” field is used internally by the plug-in.

VocAlign Ultra will never delete any of these dated and timed subdirectories. Unfortunately, VocAlign Ultra cannot determine how many of the DAW’s sessions (or projects) still refer to the audio in the subdirectories, so it “plays safe” and assumes that the audio is still needed.

Should and can I delete these directories?

If you are sure that none of your DAW sessions refer to any audio generated by VocAlign Ultra in a subdirectory, then it is safe to delete that subdirectory.

Here’s how:

You might be able to use your computer’s directory browser to identify old unneeded subdirectories. Look at the subdirectory name and the date/time fields as shown above in Fig 3. You will need to decide what is delete-able.

Another clue is in VocAlign Ultra’s “Settings” dialogue box (shown below in Fig.4) which displays the Audio Cache Location path for the local directory that the plug-in is using to store its audio for the current session. This may also help you determine which subdirectories are still in use.

Figure 4. Path of the local directory used to cache the current session’s audio

VocAlign Ultra (ARA)

Should you choose not to archive audio in the DAW’s session, the ARA version of VocAlign Ultra will save its processed (aligned) output audio to a local directory. VocAlign Ultra will not save the Guide or Dub audio as it can recreate these from your DAW session.

To keep the “Real Time” and “ARA” audio separate, VocAlign Ultra (ARA) stores its data in the directory “AraAudioCache”, which is shown expanded in Fig.5 below.

Figure 5. Example of VocAlign Ultra (ARA)’s Audio Cache.

Similar to the “Real-Time” versions of VocAlign Ultra, VocAlign Ultra creates a subdirectory for each session in your DAW. The subdirectory’s name has the form “year-month-day hours-minutes-seconds”. For example, the directory “2021-02-03 14-53-13” was created on 3^rd February 2021 at 14.53.13 (2.53 p.m.).

VocAlign Ultra (ARA) will not delete the directory “AraAudioCache” or any of its subdirectories.

It is, however, always safe to delete any of the subdirectories as VocAlign Ultra can regenerate the audio. But if you delete a subdirectory that is still in use then, at worst, you may have to wait for VocAlign Ultra to regenerate its aligned audio before you replay the project.

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