Why don't "Preview" levels come back after a save?

[midnightrambler]

Ok, I admit it, I made a terrible schoolboy error. I printed a mix with a load of tracks in "preview", then quit the session, without writing the levels in. First time I've ever made that mistake. I was disappointed that the preview levels didn't come back when I re-opened the session, and I was trying to figure out why they shouldn't - any good reason?

For anyone that cares, and I know that's probably none of you, I managed to get the printed levels back by playing the mix printed ø with the live mix until the signals disappeared.

[Drew Mazurek]

Probably because Preview info is held in RAM and that RAM is cleared when the session is closed? Sounds perfectly logical to me.

[Stig Eliassen]

I don't know this, but Preview values are stored in a buffer, so I'm thinking RAM?

[midnightrambler]

Hmm, I'm not really buying it. Surely all the mix info is held in RAM, once the session is booted up? I can't imagine the automation data being read from disk for every playback, it's not like we're talking hundreds of Mb for some squiggly lines. Audio and video data yes, but automation data?

[midnightrambler]

And now my session has just crashed while I was re-balancing using preview and there's no way of getting my levels back as the preview levels are not stored in the backup session. B*llocks.

[Drew Mazurek]

Originally Posted by midnightrambler

Hmm, I'm not really buying it. Surely all the mix info is held in RAM, once the session is booted up? I can't imagine the automation data being read from disk for every playback, it's not like we're talking hundreds of Mb for some squiggly lines. Audio and video data yes, but automation data?

Automation is handled by the CPU, so yes, all mix data, including the Preview buffer is held in RAM, which is probably cleared when closing a session. I guess what you want is for the Preview buffer to be stored in the session somehow. Seems like a reasonable request.

[uno1234]

This is really silly. At the very least pro tools should warn you "you are about to exit preview mode without punching, are you sure you want to do this?" when exiting preview mode for any reason.

I have been burned before....