Arel

First, and before anything else: copy the entire project folder somewhere else and work only on the copy. Every recovery attempt can make things worse, and the original is the only thing you cannot get back. Do this now.

Then the thing that makes this recoverable at all: most editors keep the audio and the project file separately. The project file is a description — which clip sits where, what the levels are — and the actual recordings are separate files in a data folder, usually broken into many small pieces.

Which means a corrupt project file usually does not mean lost audio. Your performances are very likely intact. What you have lost is the arrangement.

So the order is: find the audio data, confirm it is there, and only then worry about the project file. Knowing the recordings still exist changes this from a disaster into an annoyance.

The recovery ladder, on the copy:

1. Look for an automatic backup. Many editors write one alongside the project, sometimes with a different extension or a tilde, and many keep a recovery folder from an unclean exit. This is the single most likely win and people miss it because the file is not where they look.

2. Open the temporary or recovery data. Some editors detect an unclean shutdown and offer recovery on next launch. If it offered once and you dismissed it, the data may still be there.

3. Check the audio data folder. If the recordings are present as many small files, they can usually be reassembled, and there are community tools for exactly this on the popular editors. Tedious, and it gets your performances back.

4. Repair the project file. Some project formats are text or compressed text, and a truncated file can sometimes be trimmed to the last valid point. Only on a copy, and only if you are comfortable.

5. Ask on the editor's own forum. Corruption modes are specific to the format and somebody has usually seen yours.

One diagnostic that separates hardware from software in ten seconds: plug the board into a phone charger.

If it powers up and runs whatever was last on it, the board and the cable's power lines are fine, and you are looking at data lines, drivers or software. If it does nothing, it is power or the board.

Same idea with a second computer. Two machines behaving identically points at the board or the cable; different behaviour points at the machine.

Practical suggestion: do one screen with option two before deciding anything.

Pick the live filtering one, implement it with fragment swapping, and see how it feels to build and to maintain. It is a day, it is reversible, and it will tell you more than any comparison article.

If it is comfortable, do the other two and the question is closed. If it fights you, you have learned something specific about your application that argues for a heavier approach, and you can make that case with evidence.