The following are some things to keep in mind:
Conformed Audio Files
Whenever you open or import a file (movie clip), Premiere automatically converts the audio track into a new proprietary format called conformed audio files. The new format increases the detail that can be extracted from the audio waveform and allows Premiere to communicate and process audio files more efficiently.
These new files are stored in a folder called Conformed Audio Files on the same directory level as the project. Inside the folder are two files for each clip. One has an extension called .cpa. This file is the actual newly created audio file. The other file, which has a .pek extension, contains the graphic waveform data for the audio file. If you delete the conformed audio files from the hard drive, you have not corrupted your project. When you open the project again, Premiere will re-create the conformed audio files.
Disk Usage
Professional video editors often have three hard drives attached to their PC’s – one for the application (typically C:\), one for the video, and one for conformed audio files. Location of these components is set in Edit — Preferences — Scratch Disks.
Multi-user Environments
If you have multiple video editors accessing the same video clips you could very easily run out of disk space. This is because as each user creates a project and opens/imports a video clip, new conformed audio files are created resulting in duplicate files. There are two strategies for avoiding this:
- Have one master project with several folders – one for each team member. Within each folder is a timeline sequence that references the video clips and their accompanying conformed audio files. Remember that conformed audio files are project specific so this approach will not result in duplicate files; all users are accessing the same files.
- The second approach (which I much prefer) is that each team member have his/her own project but instead of opening/importing the video files (and thus creating new conformed audio files), he/she import and existing master project. This master project contains only video clips with respective conformed audio files. When any team member imports that project, (s)he will have access to the clips and audio without additional file space being taken up with duplicate conformed audio files