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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 21
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OP
Enthusiast
Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 21 |
I have continually upgraded Band-in-a-Box for many years, and I just installed 2012 on to my internal hard drive. There appears to be many duplicate files -- that is, files that are the same in size and content but have different names.
So, my basic question is: are they really duplicates or are they just similar files of the same size with different names?
Here is an example of what appears to be a file with five copies of it, but all with different names. These particular files are in my bb\RealTracks - Demos\ directory:
Piano, Electric, Soloist SmoothJazzBallad chorus Ev16 065 #1074 band.wma size 1215006
Piano, Electric, Soloist SmoothJazzBallad chorus Ev16 065 (Bluesy) #1077 band.wma size 1215006
Piano, Electric, Soloist SmoothJazzBallad delay Ev16 065 #1078 band.wma size 1215006
Piano, Electric, Soloist SmoothJazzBallad dry Ev16 065 (Bluesy) #1167 band.wma size 1215006
Piano, Electric, Soloist SmoothJazzBallad chorus Ev16 065 #1076 band.wma size 1215006
I believe the program I used to find the dups discriminates among files of the same size but with different structural content since there were files of the same size that were not identified as duplicates.
For example:
Piano, Electric, Soloist SmoothJazzBallad chorus Ev16 065 #1074 band.wma size 1215006
Pedal Steel,Soloist ContryPaul Ev 065 #1667 band.wma size 1215006
Just wondering.
Overall I found of the 108,850 files in C:\bb\ and 3,644 of the files accounted for 11,098 duplicates.
Thank you.
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Joined: Dec 2002
Posts: 12,950
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Interesting analysis, seems you have a little spare time on your hands.  I guess I would never suspect that files with different names would be duplicates. The fact that the size is the same is linkly not unusual for a audio file which differs only in effects. But don't know for sure? do an experiment and render the same song serval times wiht a different effect, will bet the size does not vary.
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Joined: Feb 2007
Posts: 1,815
Expert
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Expert
Joined: Feb 2007
Posts: 1,815 |
songs with the same length in time and same encoding will have the same exact size whether it is one track or a thousand mixed down (i think).
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Joined: May 2000
Posts: 22,609
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Go play those files in Media Player and see if they are exactly the same. If they are, I probably still wouldn't delete them as they may simply have markers in different locations that affect how BiaB uses them in different styles, so they may appear the same but be different in ways that are not obvious.
I do not work here, but the benefits are still awesome
Make your sound your own!
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Joined: Dec 2007
Posts: 238
Apprentice
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Apprentice
Joined: Dec 2007
Posts: 238 |
Google on "binary file compare utility" for freebie programs that will compare 2 files and report if they are an exact match.
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Joined: Oct 2008
Posts: 20,587
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TG, Quote:
Piano, Electric, Soloist SmoothJazzBallad chorus Ev16 065 #1074 band.wma size 1215006
Piano, Electric, Soloist SmoothJazzBallad chorus Ev16 065 (Bluesy) #1077 band.wma size 1215006
Piano, Electric, Soloist SmoothJazzBallad delay Ev16 065 #1078 band.wma size 1215006
Piano, Electric, Soloist SmoothJazzBallad dry Ev16 065 (Bluesy) #1167 band.wma size 1215006
Piano, Electric, Soloist SmoothJazzBallad chorus Ev16 065 #1076 band.wma size 1215006
As far as I can tell, these are individual files based on the same parent file. The "Dry" file, #1167, is the original recording and the other files are a result of adding effects (chorus, delay) to #1167.
As others have mentioned above, with audio recordings it is the length of the recording that determines the size. Since these files all sprang from the same source (#1167), they are identical in length and thus identical in size. That's my take on it, at least.
Regards,
Noel
MY SONGS...Audiophile BIAB 2026
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Joined: Aug 2007
Posts: 2,281
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Hi there, I agree, not only the file names are not identical, which may indicate that they are not exactly the same files, but on two of them there is a difference that indicates that is a "bluesy" way of playing maybe the same set of notes. Well that is nothing new, there has been some Real Tracks with that distinction before (since 2011 or maybe 2010 version). So yes, I wouldn't erase them at all.
Mike B.
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 21
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OP
Enthusiast
Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 21 |
Thanx Hog Time -
Never would have thought of doing this if you hadn't suggested it!
I downloaded a trial version of ECMerge which is a full-featured visual file comparison and merging utility. It provided color-coded, side-by-side binary comparison which appeared to be a hexadecimal display of the files (this utility provides an option to compare either text files or all other file types, so I chose the other option since these are not text files).
I compared the first file listed below to two other files, as shown:
Piano, Electric, Soloist SmoothJazzBallad chorus Ev16 065 #1076 band.wma size 1215006
Piano, Electric, Soloist SmoothJazzBallad chorus Ev16 065 #1074 band.wma size 1215006
Piano, Electric, Soloist SmoothJazzBallad chorus Ev16 065 #1076 band.wma size 1215006
Piano, Electric, Soloist SmoothJazzBallad chorus Ev16 065 (Bluesy) #1077 band.wma size 1215006
ECMerge told me the files were all identical.
But don't delete any files just because they're identica!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I don't recommend anyone delete any files since the program calls within the RealTracks algorithyms are most likely made by filename, and if you delete any file, there is a chance the program might not work correctly. Even though there may be another identical file residing in same directory, the identical file would not have the filename the RealTracks algorithym would be looking for (since it would have been deleted).
Thinking through this issue, I suppose PG Music addressed this as a sub-issue within the context of an overarching issue: distribution of the program.
Perhaps the distribution of the program on self-contained hard drives from which the program can be run negated the need to consolidate the RealTracks program calls and as well as the need to remove identical files which most likely would not have freed up enough data to continue distributing via DVDs anyway.
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