File size of tracks much too large

[spatzi]

I have a problem that I just discovered. This app is taking up way too much space on my ipad. I hardly have any songs in the app, and the size of the app is now over 6 gigs according to my 'usage' stats. I made a two minute simple recording of my guitar. ONE track. I checked the total space I had free first, then I deleted this recording. It freed up almost HALF A GIG of space.

This can't be right. I just purchased an additional 16 tracks for 7.99 and was intent on using multitrack more often, but if file sizes are this large, it won't work. My 10 remaining gigs of ipad space will be gone very quickly.

In comparison, on my 'garageband' app, I have 27 songs recorded, most with at least 6-8 tracks being used (average length of each track is two minutes) and the total size of this app is just over 1 gig.

Is there no compression in DAW? How can a two minute single track of acoustic guitar be almost half a gig in size?

[pwnified]

The FIRST track in a song will use about 150MB per 5 minutes. However, all subsequent tracks (that are in parallel) will only use 10MB per 1 minute (for stereo tracks). So half a gig for 2 minutes is not correct, something else must have happend on the device to throw the filespace calculation off.

[spatzi]

Just tried it again with a single 9 minute track. DAW was at 5.5 gb before deleting, after deleting: 4.9.
600 mb file size. According to what you said, this track should be less than 300 mb, correct?

So what can I do to fix this? Is there any way to see the file size of each individual song within the app?

[jupiler]

Just tried it again with a single 9 minute track. DAW was at 5.5 gb before deleting, after deleting: 4.9.
600 mb file size. According to what you said, this track should be less than 300 mb, correct?

So what can I do to fix this? Is there any way to see the file size of each individual song within the app?

Hi,
I have the exact same problem, file size are huge for small recordings and when I delete the tracks from the "bins" the ipad does not tell me that i have regained the space used.
Where do the tracks get stocked? I've looked everywhere in Itunes.
Also, would it be possible to make Multitrack Daw compatible with "Drop Box". Is there a way to do this?
Thank you for helping.

[Evan]

the recorded data is small, but MTD's caching scheme expands the tracks out huge.
if yu restore your phone (complete erase and then restore firmware, so yes, complete erase)
then you will see 1/4 to 1/10th the file size for your tracks.
as soon as MTD 'optimizes' each song upon opening, (so, open all songs but dont add anything just open)
you will have many times the data size exploded out on your iphone/ipad.

mabe one day theyll make a caching scheme or whatever its using, that doesent require massively expanding the tracks from their regular full resolution.

ie, these are all 16 bit 44.100hz tracks, i have verified that all the original data (multiple tracks and mixdowns together) on my computer is the same size as it is once restored but before 'opening' on your device.

[Evan]

The FIRST track in a song will use about 150MB per 5 minutes. However, all subsequent tracks (that are in parallel) will only use 10MB per 1 minute (for stereo tracks). So half a gig for 2 minutes is not correct, something else must have happend on the device to throw the filespace calculation off.

i sure hope your not the programmer of the app... because what your saying is not what happens in the software.

[pwnified]

mabe one day theyll make a caching scheme or whatever its using, that doesent require massively expanding the tracks from their regular full resolution.

To get 24 stereo tracks with FX (4 bands of EQ / Compression, over 240 effects!) on 3rd generation devices is still unheard of for any other app.

Optimization is a tradeoff between memory (caching) and processor (CPU). MultiTrack still runs 24 tracks on the original iPhone, something that is impossible with a brute-force track renderer. Now that we have GHz speed devices and SIMD extensions, it is now possible to run 24 tracks or more without caching (although file bandwidth is still a concern, the newer NAND type flashram is fast). It might be possible to do a more traditional track rendering code pathway, I'll look into it.

I was considering having older unsued songs have their cache deleted automatically, but it looks like iOS takes care of this for you (it will delete caches of non-running apps in the background when filespace gets low)

[Evan]

ok, so the file sizes are needed to stream this many number of tracks... no way around it.

i have a 3gs, and dont intend to get those poor chinese workers to make me a new one just for fun, so.,.,
AND i use IOS 4.2.1 whereas all others forward went downhill in terms of certain efficiencies on a 3gs and certain features... dont fix whats not broken and is serving ones needs without compromise eh?

i most commonly use 4 mono tracks, or 6 at most... on the iphone.
is there a possibility of 'brute force' rendering at lower track counts?
that would mean, possibly, either a special 4 track (or 8 track) version or mabe just an option of track count max for each new project?

id have both versions installed and would almost never use the larger one... i believe many people have this smaller use and would benefit from this (a 'lite' version, but really nothing lite at all because its same functioning. call it an 'efficient' version).

just an idea, esp. for keeping a 16GB iphone working for longer...

[Evan]

excellent, we have solved this issue,m 8 tracks or less are now not cached, speeding up load times as well as more than halving file space , thanks for the good work