Are Safes saved in Show files?

[Jos]

Imagine for a sec that I’ve got a show with some scenes in it. With nothing marked as Block/Safe, the scenes would look like this:

1. SC1 — Channel 14 assigned to Mix 1 @ 50%, Mix 2 @ 50%; Channel 1 send to FX 1 @ 25%
2. SC2 — Channel 14 assigned to Mix 1 only; Channel 1 send to FX 1 @ 50%

Let’s say I go in and mark “Sends to FX” as BLOCK in the Global Filter section, and save a new copy of the show. Does that show file contain the Channel 1 send information and just not load it when processing scenes? That is, if I took that show file and loaded it up on some other mixer and then marked “Sends to FX” as ALLOW, would that Channel 1 processing be there and loaded, or would it not get saved in that show file because that setting was marked BLOCK when I saved the show?

Put another way, do Global Filter / Safes markings just control what’s loaded or do they also control what’s saved?

[Jos]

(The actual reason I’m asking: I want to reset the mixer for the next show, but I want to completely save the state of the mixer from the current show in case I need to load it again. I’m wondering if I have to go through and un-safe/un-block everything in order to make a full backup or not. 🙂 )

[nottooloud]

Shouldn’t take you too long to try it. Let us know what you find out.

[Jos]

Heh! I can only blame massive sleep deprivation for not having thought of that utterly logical approach sooner. 🙂 To be fully scientific about it[0], I set up a little experiment: using multiple save files, I evaluated all of the possible parameters at play (I think).

The Method

I took the show I just completed, which has 45 scenes with channels that change routing, assignments, levels, etc. throughout the scenes, and stored four copies of it on a USB drive:

• One copy just as it’s set now, which includes a bunch of settings marked BLOCK in the Global Filters and several active channels marked SAFE in the Safes section;
• One copy with all of the Global Filters and Safes turned off (i.e., nothing blocked out);
• One copy with Global Filters bits active but no channels marked Safe;
• One copy with active channels marked Safe but no Global Filters active.

I then pulled those save files over to my computer and compared the files: every show directory had an NVDATA.DAT file, 45 SCENE0XX.DAT files, and a SHOW.DAT file. Using SHA-256, I ran checksums of every file in every directory, and then pulled the result into Excel to eyeball.

The Results

Every single SCENE0XX file was bit-for-bit identical between the various copies, while the NVDATA.DAT and SHOW.DAT files were different in every directory.

The SHOW.DAT file just contains the name of the save file that’s displayed on the SQ when you insert the USB stick, so those logically would be different files for each show. I wasn’t sure about NVDATA.DAT, but acting on a hunch I tried swapping the NVDATA.DAT from the “nothing blocked” show to the “all the blocks” show and then recalled the “all the blocks” show — sure enough, NVDATA.DAT stores the collection of settings from the Global Filters and Safes sections of the show!

So there we are: some useful info about DAT files. Now, if we could just get a utility to read and write them offline, the way we have for the M32/X32 cue sets… 🙂

[0] “Remember kids, the difference between science and screwing around is writing it down.” — Adam Savage

[KeithJ A&H]

What is stored in a Scene, a Show and separately in the unit is also listed here – https://www.allen-heath.com/media/SQ_ReferenceGuide_V1_5_0.pdf#page=57&zoom=auto,-361,573
(Channel Safes are show level data).

Thanks,
Keith.

[Jos]

Oh well, sure, if you want to be all logical and read the manual. Takes all the fun out of it! 🙂

(In all seriousness, looks like it’s time for me to sit down with a cup of tea and the reference guide, eh?)

[EZ_Audio]

Still no editor for the DAT files, right? Trying to reverse engineer it, but so far with little success.

[Author]

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