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JeffOYB
Known Participant
November 6, 2019
Question

How to combine .sesx files or paste clips from one file to another?

  • November 6, 2019
  • 2 replies
  • 1234 views

I've recorded a bunch of audio in a dozen separate sessions. Each one a separate file. Then I edited them all. They are .sesx files. Now I'd like to combine some of this audio. I figured I could just copy the audio clip from one file to another. WRONG! Why not? I can cut'n'paste clips within a file but not from one to another. Well, does anyone know how to do this? I assume that it is as common as any other type of cut'n'paste work. Hmmm, I've seen mention of a 3rd party program called SesxToSesx. I'm shocked that what seems like a common function would need a 3rd party program to make it work. I suppose that what I am missing is an appreciation that each .sesx file contains source files which are then edited. Well, there should be some straightforward way to combine files. I suppose I could Export a hopefully lossless file out of one .sesx file and Import it into the other. I also plan to do Post-processing, noise reduction and such...

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2 replies

SteveG_AudioMasters_
Community Expert
Community Expert
November 7, 2019

This may be a nomenclature issue. Adding the contents of one file to another is easy - that's concatenation, but that's not what you appear to be talking about. A file that's open in a session is 'open' in the sense that it's in the file list. If you have two or more sessions open at the same time (which you can), there's nothing to stop you placing that file in any of them, wherever you like. Your only limitation here is that it will be the entire file that's placed - unless you convert the parts you actually want to unique copies - so you'd have to trim it in each session. The limitation that Sesx2Sesx gets over is simply that of being able to concatenate sessions. So the ability to move individual files between sessions already exists, but the files don't exist as entities within them, ever; all that's in the session file is references to the one you recorded, and an indication of which bits of it you want to use.

 

When you recorded your original files, you did this in Multitrack, yes? That will record a file direct to disk, which is a sensible way of doing it. But how did you edit those files? If you edited them in Multitrack, you didn't 'edit' them at all in the correct sense of the word at all, because it's essentially non-destructive; you can only make permanent changes to the files you recorded in Waveform view, because that's a destructive editor - once you've made the changes, they're permanent. Edits in session files don't touch the originals at all.

SteveG_AudioMasters_
Community Expert
Community Expert
November 6, 2019

Actually it's not a particularly common requirement at all, which is why sesx2sesx exists. Also you should note that Audition specifically allows for 3rd party apps to run with it - if individual developers create these as needed, it enables the Adobe developers to concentrate on the core functionality (which is what all the big ticket users are after). So I don't think you should be shocked at all - you should be grateful!

 

Incidentally, a session file doesn't contain any other files at all. All it contains is information about what to do with the files it references. What sesx2sesx does is enable you to concatenate those. The reason that it's comparatively rare to want to do this is because the vast majority of users only run one session at a time.

JeffOYB
JeffOYBAuthor
Known Participant
November 6, 2019

I see that Sesx2sesx is only for Windows. Rats. I have a Mac...

JeffOYB
JeffOYBAuthor
Known Participant
November 7, 2019

How do Mac users add the content of one .sesx file to another?

(You say the desire to add the contents of files to each other isn't common. Maybe not in Audition but it's *somewhat* common in everything else. Since I'm a new Audition user it's likely that my workflow isn't typical. ...Altho it *is* typical for the user of most other programs. I typically open new files. I suspect it's a common process... But whatever...)