Relinking recordings
A song names each recording it plays (a recording lane’s, an audio clip’s) and reads it again when it opens; a take you record is kept in the Takes folder beside your songs, or inside the song’s own file (Where takes are kept). When a file isn’t where the song expects it, Stab looks in the usual places, and if it’s still missing, the recording stays silent until you show Stab where it is.
The web app doesn’t play recordings, so there’s nothing to relink there: a song’s recordings play on the Mac, Windows, the iPad, the iPhone and Android.
Finding moved recordings
Available on Mac and Windows. Not on Web.
This isn’t on Web.
Where Stab looks
When a song opens, each recording is looked for, in this order:
- Where it was beside the song when the song was saved, such as its Recordings folder.
- Where it was when the song was saved.
- Next to the song’s file.
- In a Recordings folder next to the song.
- In a folder named after the song inside that Recordings folder.
The first one found is used, so a song moved together with its recordings, or with its Recordings folder, finds them all. Takes aren’t looked for this way: a song finds its takes by the song itself, in the Takes folder beside your songs (Where takes are kept), and a take kept in the song is never missing.
On your computer, a recording you import is copied into the Recordings folder beside your songs (on the same disk, the copy takes no extra space), so the song doesn’t lose it when the original moves. To send a song with its takes, use Save a Copy…: the copy holds them all. Recordings you imported travel in the Recordings folder.
A recording that has moved
If a recording can’t be found, a recording lane’s or an audio clip’s, Stab asks Where is “…”? as the song opens: Locate… lets you pick the file, Skip leaves it silent for now. Each missing recording is asked in turn.
If recordings can’t be found as the song opens, a recording lane’s or an audio clip’s, Stab says how many, and which (“2 recordings not found”). Until they’re found, they stay silent.
Any missing recording is listed in the Recordings tab of the Audio & MIDI pane as Missing, with its file’s name. Choose Relink… on its row and pick the file where it is now; it plays again at once, in its place, with nothing else in the song changed. The file you pick is copied into the Recordings folder beside your songs, as an import is.
A recording that’s there has Show in FinderShow in File Explorer on its row.
A song you’ve joined in Play Together plays its recordings from the host’s device, so nothing is relinked on yours: see Recordings in a session.