Preference file question

[gdougherty]

What does a preferences file load that requires a mix session closure? I thought it was all hardware and setup stuff that wouldn't impact the mix itself.

[DavidandMary]

When wanting to save your preferences, save yourself first and open fresh. Make the changes and then save preferences. Consider it your defaults. What will always happen. Mix sessions can be changed with different needs. I think of Preferences as the default. Some of the heavy hitters around here make use of multiple sets of preferences. I don't know about you, but I do the differing setups with the mix sessions and always leave the main things to the default settings of preferences...

[Bob L]

Prefs save main system and engine thread settings... many of these settings can not be tampered with or changed while the engine is running and requires the session and internal buffers for the engine be cleared before loading.

Bob L

[gdougherty]

Prefs save main system and engine thread settings... many of these settings can not be tampered with or changed while the engine is running and requires the session and internal buffers for the engine be cleared before loading.

Bob L

Alright. I'd saved prefs for my M-Audio and RME hardware and it just seemed odd to have it clear the session when I switched hardware. Perhaps a feature request out of this would be to reload the closed session. Jumping back to a default blank session doesn't seem the right destination if you're just swapping the underlying settings.

[Bob L]

Just swapping the underlying session is everything... with different hardware, many sessions designed for another set of hardware will not route properly and won't run anyway without missing device errors in many cases...

If you change prefs you are changing the complete hardware guts of the engine... loading the previous session setup for different hardware could cause serious issues when the engine is restarted...

If you are changing prefs, its not too much to ask for you to be involved in then picking the sessions you want to load that go along with those new prefs... use the Recent Session option to load the previous session if that's what you intend to do...

Bob L

[gdougherty]

Just swapping the underlying session is everything... with different hardware, many sessions designed for another set of hardware will not route properly and won't run anyway without missing device errors in many cases...

If you change prefs you are changing the complete hardware guts of the engine... loading the previous session setup for different hardware could cause serious issues when the engine is restarted...

If you are changing prefs, its not too much to ask for you to be involved in then picking the sessions you want to load that go along with those new prefs... use the Recent Session option to load the previous session if that's what you intend to do...

Bob L
The only place I'd really come across "needing" to do it was if my firewire interface lost power or disconnected. At that point I had to reset the audio interface which reset the i/o patching to default rather than my preferred. To solve that I'd need to reload the prefs or shut down SAC. It all becomes a longer fix if a cable gets tugged in the middle of a show. Reloading the prefs also fixes it, but it's still one more step to reload the session. Keeping the current session would get it up that much quicker.

[Bob L]

I don't care to argue about this... because I know you are not aware of the programming issues under the hood... but changing devices also changes internal buffer allocations and an existing session kept in memory could very well end up adressing now memory buffers that are bno longer present when we close down and then re-initialize the new soundcard devices... therefore upon starting the engine... instant and serious crash.

Closing out the session cleans up all the internal buffer allocations properly before reloading new soundcard devices and driver hooks... then re-allocates memory accordingly... then when the session is re-loaded, everything falls into place as it should.

You should be grateful that the program even allows you to change prefs and device assignments on the fly...

Please... let it go... and move on to something else. :)

Bob L

[airickess]

The only place I'd really come across "needing" to do it was if my firewire interface lost power or disconnected. At that point I had to reset the audio interface which reset the i/o patching to default rather than my preferred. To solve that I'd need to reload the prefs or shut down SAC. It all becomes a longer fix if a cable gets tugged in the middle of a show. Reloading the prefs also fixes it, but it's still one more step to reload the session. Keeping the current session would get it up that much quicker.To also solve that you'd have to turn off the amps to the speakers unless you want to risk a lovely pop and possible speaker damage. Losing power to your interface is just like losing your mixing console outputs - either one will stop at least your portion of the show for some amount of time any way.

[gdougherty]

I don't care to argue about this... because I know you are not aware of the programming issues under the hood... but changing devices also changes internal buffer allocations and an existing session kept in memory could very well end up adressing now memory buffers that are bno longer present when we close down and then re-initialize the new soundcard devices... therefore upon starting the engine... instant and serious crash.

Closing out the session cleans up all the internal buffer allocations properly before reloading new soundcard devices and driver hooks... then re-allocates memory accordingly... then when the session is re-loaded, everything falls into place as it should.

You should be grateful that the program even allows you to change prefs and device assignments on the fly...

Please... let it go... and move on to something else. :)

Bob L

But bawwwb... Thanks for the explanation. That makes sense, though it doesn't seem to negate the possibility of reloading the last session automatically or at least granting that option if a user doesn't want to reload. I don't see it as a major usability problem, it's just a nicety. One of those friendly behaviors some programs have. If you can't tell, I used to be a UI designer and programmer and was the annoying one advocating on behalf of users for features I thought they might like to see. I was usually right, though the effeort involved was not always warranted.

[gdougherty]

To also solve that you'd have to turn off the amps to the speakers unless you want to risk a lovely pop and possible speaker damage. Losing power to your interface is just like losing your mixing console outputs - either one will stop at least your portion of the show for some amount of time any way.
Some interfaces do, true. Proper system limiters and amp gain protect the speakers no matter what your board does. I'm happy to ditch my outboard processors if possible, but that's one area where I'm a little hesitant. My amps are oversized for a light load and longevity, with the gains backed off and limiters set in my processors. If I dropped my DCX2496 entirely, I'd lose the limiters outside of software limiters. I have yet to patch everything without the processors in the middle and see what difference in sound quality it makes. I'm hoping to try it out Friday when I setup in a large outdoor park.