Smart Copy with different Recording from parent

[Ahiru]

Smart Copy songs should be great for creating practice versions of songs with backing track recordings that have some normally live elements added, so someone in the band can practice solo as if other band-mates are also playing.  However, I'm not able to get a Smart Copy to use an different recording from the parent song by these steps:

1. The parent "Song-A" has a Recording "MySong.mp4" attached, along with automation, etc.
2. I create a Smart Copy and name it "Song-A Practice"
3. I upload a different recording "MySong-Practice.mp4" to that Smart Copy, replacing the default recording.

Works great for the practice song... However, what I find is that the parent song "Song-A" was also updated to use the alternate recording "MySong-Practice.mp4".

Is there something I should be doing differently to get the alternate recording for the Smart Copy without changing the recording assigned to the parent song?

[Ahiru]

In case relevant, some more about these steps:

* I created the Smart Copy song from the web interface, from the Songs menu (not from within any setlist).

* I don't see any evidence the parent song entry in an existing setlist had been inadvertently changed to the new smart copy.  (i.e. 'Song-A Practice' only appears in a new practice setlist created for that purpose.)  However playing 'Song-A' from an existing setlist plays the new alternate recording (which is not my intent).

[Ahiru]

I'll open up a ticket on this...

I've furthermore found that a similar issue occurs if using simple Copy (not Smart Copy) to create a song copy... after this action whatever I upload for a Recording for one song gets assigned to the other as well, as if they are permanently entangled.

[arlo]

I wasn't able to reproduce this problem, but I replied to your help ticket and we can continue discussing it there.

[Ahiru]

Thanks for all your help with the separate ticket, and in case any others are interested, I've learned two things:

1. To create a Smart Copy with an alternate recording, simply delete the original recording in the Smart Copy and add the alternate recording.  (No need to worry about side effects of deleting the original recording from the smart copy).  The alternate recording will be played by the existing automation for the smart copy song.  Perfect for my use case of a 'practice version'.

2. If you replace the contents of an existing Recording by clicking on that recording and uploading a different file, it replaces that Recording 'object' wherever it is referenced, even if referenced by multiple songs, copies, etc.  If you really want a different recording in Song-B (but not affect some other Song-A that also references it), you need to delete the recording in Song-B and add the alternate recording.

[arlo]

One note about this part:

To create a Smart Copy with an alternate recording, simply delete the original recording in the Smart Copy and add the alternate recording.

If you simply delete the recording from the smart copy and save, it will reappear because a smart copy shows the original copy's values in the place of any empty field (you can think of the list of recordings as a field). But if you delete the original recording and add a new recording and save, then the new recording will appear instead of original recording.

BTW if you later delete the new recording, the original recording will then reappear. In other words, you can't have a smart copy with no recordings, if the original copy has recordings. Emptying a field in a smart copy is the same as saying "Show the value from the original copy."