Does it matter that I use a LOT of tracks in my timeline?

[Ferret Lady]

Ok, in music videos i usually end up with like 20 video tracks going. Quite often I have like 5 video clips that are under the one actually being used in the timeline.. my question is, do i need to delete those unused clips underneath and basically collapse it down to one track before exporting the final thing?

I know it only shows the clip on top regardless of how many are under it, but does this effect file size? is it storing that info of the clips underneath, even tho they are not shown?

Should I just nest the sequence before exporting?

 

[Will Clegg]

It is storing the data about the clips underneath, but the file size is not really a big deal. You are talking about megabytes for a project file, not gigabytes.

The real consideration is RAM usage. If you find that your system is stuttering a bit on playback, it's probably because you have so many tracks playing at once (even though only one may be visible). I

f you aren't having any playback problems, don't worry about it. It's maybe not the most efficient way to edit, but if it ain't broke...

 

[Ferret Lady]

good point about the ram.

but i meant, does it add file size to the xported .mov file. i'm not worried about the size of the project file.

 

[stuckfootage]

good point about the ram.

does it add file size to the xported .mov file. i'm not worried about the size of the project file.

No, the output file is the combined result of the individual files,
so its size is determined by the dimensions, frame-rate, codec, and duration--
not by the number of layers used to create it.