Archiving Show Data

[RBIngraham]

So I noticed some notes about the latest SAC version not being backwards compatible and such. Just curious if this means that I wouldn't be able to properly open an older mix session in later versions?

For me it concerns shows that might possibly remount. For example I just closed a production of Peter Pan yesterday, but it might come back next x-mas season... or not... still up in the air. But several companies I work with will mount a big Holiday show and then run that show in the same time slot for 2 or 3 years in a row.

I'm obviously saving and archiving all the data files for the show and I have all the installers for SAC saved back to when I first bought it. Maybe I should just back up the entire SAC install folder as part of my show archives?

I'm sure at some point in time something will break, but in general should I be able to open mix files from older versions in newer versions of SAC?

Thanks in advance.

[Bob L]

No... it means if you create sessions in 2.3, these will not open in earlier versions if you ever neeed to step backwards due to problems with 2.3.

Older sessions are forward compatable... meaning they will open fine in this and later versions.

So far... 2.3 seems to be holding stable... if things remain this way, it should not be something to worry about.

Bob L

[RBIngraham]

Thanks Bob.

I wasn't questioning the stability of SAC 2.3. By something might break at some point, I simply meant that some day down the road I'm sure the latest version of SAC might not be able to open a really, really old SAC file. Like SAC 5.5 might not properly open a SAC 2.0 file or something.

But who knows. I suspect if anyone could keep new versions compatible with old files forever, you would be the guy.

[Naturally Digital]

Maybe I should just back up the entire SAC install folder as part of my show archives?

That's what I would do and many have been working this way with SAW. It's one of the nice things about the way it installs... it's very portable.

[gdougherty]

You could also take time to open old shows and re-save them in the new version. That should keep things compatible as you step through versions. Not a bad idea to archive your SAC setup at each new version though.

[RBIngraham]

You could also take time to open old shows and re-save them in the new version. That should keep things compatible as you step through versions. Not a bad idea to archive your SAC setup at each new version though.

Interesting idea. But most remounts are typically only a year apart at most. If it's more than that, then usually it's considered a new production, even if the company has done the show in the past. In which case so much of the show has changed, that with the exception of maybe some of the sound effects files you're usually starting over again from scratch anyway. I suspect that doing incremental updates to any show that might remount would largely be a waste of time. But it probably would be worth while if I know for certain that the show will be back next year.

But I think I will start to just archive my entire SAC folder with a show, it's not like it's a huge install. I guess maybe if you had a huge number of plug ins it might be. But most of us I think are running pretty lean with the number of plug ins as part of the install. At least I am anyway. Especially if you compare it to my DAW.

[gdougherty]

Interesting idea. But most remounts are typically only a year apart at most. If it's more than that, then usually it's considered a new production, even if the company has done the show in the past. In which case so much of the show has changed, that with the exception of maybe some of the sound effects files you're usually starting over again from scratch anyway. I suspect that doing incremental updates to any show that might remount would largely be a waste of time. But it probably would be worth while if I know for certain that the show will be back next year.

But I think I will start to just archive my entire SAC folder with a show, it's not like it's a huge install. I guess maybe if you had a huge number of plug ins it might be. But most of us I think are running pretty lean with the number of plug ins as part of the install. At least I am anyway. Especially if you compare it to my DAW.

My 7zip archives of the SAC folder are a tiny fraction of the actual space used on disk. The session files especially shrink to something like 100th of the original size.

[RBIngraham]

My 7zip archives of the SAC folder are a tiny fraction of the actual space used on disk. The session files especially shrink to something like 100th of the original size.

Cool. Thanks for the info.