How to stop Audition from inserting random audio files into a recording and overwrite your work?

[JOELPRESTON]

Audition, for the second time in the last month, inserted a random audio file in the track I was working on. And then saved the file. 

I'd like to figure out how to stop Audition from doing this. I'd spent about an hour recording a story for a friend who's losing her ability to use her arms, and thus can't easily open books/turn pages. And Audition overwrote the file. 

This is what's happening: I'm working in the Waveform editor. I have a file that's 11:40 minutes long. I get a notice that Audition is going to quit. I click on Cancel. It quits anyway. When I reopen the file, it's been composited with a recording of rain that I made months ago. The same file that got mashed into a previous recording of a book I was working on a month ago. 

I don't understand how this (the compositing of different tracks) is even possible. I only have one file open--my voice recording. I am NOT working in Multi-Track mode. The rain file is NOT open. It's not highlighted. It's not in the media browser for Audition. It's sitting in a folder with around 60 other sound files. I have no script on my computer that tells Audition to randomly create/composite new soundfiles. 

Just to be clear, Audition is not auto-creating multiple tracks. It is compositing an open file (while I'm editing that file) with one that hasn't been opened for months. And then saving that file, which means my voice recording then sounds like it was made during a thunderstorm. 

Has anyone else seen this problem? Were you able to fix it? I'd really, really like Audition to never, ever do this again. Suggestions about how to stop the issue?

Thank you.

[SteveG_AudioMasters_ · Accepted solution]

Almost invariably when this happens it's because a temp file has got corrupted. The most likely cause of this is the operating system resizing its own temp file, and if this is in the same place as the Audition one (it is by default), then trouble's just waiting to happen - especially if the drive size is limited. This only happens with Waveform recording, because it's written to a temp file before being finally saved to the file you thought you were creating...

So no it's not multitple tracks being created or anything like that - it's just a temp file that has been corrupted and not cleared properly from a previous session. And this, unfortunately, can happen. It's also why you get the 'quit' notice.

I'd suggest a couple of things: firstly create a separate folder for Audition's primary temp file (the secondary one doesn't matter), but more importantly, I'd suggest recording in Multitrack. Unlike Waveform view, this records direct to hard disk and doesn't involve any temp files at all - gets around this problem completely.

[JOELPRESTON]

Wow, SteveG, I'm impressed. And grateful. Now I'll be YouTubeing how to record in Multitrack. Thank you!