Sessions

A session is the whole show in one file. Plus the automatic copy that keeps anything from getting lost, and undo.

A session is your whole show in one file: every channel with its plugins and their settings, the New York buses, sidechains, the tempo - and the musicians' in-ear mixes. Save one per show or per band, and open it at the next gig.

On top of that, Shadow Rack keeps an automatic copy of the rack all the time. You don't have to save to be safe: if the Mac crashes or the power goes, Shadow Rack starts again with the same rack.

The top bar: the session's name on the left, undo and redo next to it

Click SESSION on the top bar (or use Session in the menu bar):

Item	Keys	What it does
New session	`⌘N`	An empty rack: no channels, tempo 120 (and no musicians or sources in the in-ears)
Open...	`⌘O`	Opens a `.shadowrack` file, starting in `~/Documents/Shadow Rack/`
Open recent ▸		The last ten sessions (top-bar menu only)
Save	`⌘S`	Saves to the session's file; the first time, it works like Save as
Save as...	`⌘⇧S`	Saves under a new name (it suggests My show.shadowrack) and warns before overwriting
Show sessions folder		Opens the folder in the Finder (top-bar menu only)

The SESSION display shows the session's name (Untitled until it's saved) and a red dot when there are unsaved changes; the window title adds (edited).

Before New session or Open... throws away unsaved changes, Shadow Rack asks: The current session has unsaved changes. Continue without saving? with DON'T SAVE and CANCEL.

You can also double-click a .shadowrack file in the Finder, or drop it on Shadow Rack's Dock icon: it opens in the running app (after the same question).

What a session holds#

In the session	Not in the session (they belong to this Mac)
Every channel: name, colour, icon, routing, mono / stereo, bypass, Keep in time with the PA	The audio interface, sample rate and buffer
Every plugin with its full settings, bypass, sidechain source, and whether it's pinned in its own window	My plugins and your favourites
New York buses, every send with its level and ON, where the copy is taken	Learnt MIDI controls and knob maps
The tempo	The tablet settings
The in-ear mixes (with Rack IEM)	BYPASS ALL

A plugin that's missing on this Mac stays in the session with all its settings, so opening a session on a Mac without that plugin and saving it again loses nothing. Opening reports any plugin that couldn't load (Some plugins could not be loaded). See plugins.

The in-ear mixes since 0.4#

With Rack IEM, a session also holds the musicians, their sources and their mixes - one file for the whole show. New session starts the in-ears empty too. See Rack IEM.

The automatic copy#

Shadow Rack writes a copy of the whole rack 1.5 seconds after every change and every 30 seconds (to catch knob moves inside plugins), and once more when you quit. It goes to ~/Library/Application Support/Shadow Rack/Autosave.shadowrack, written to a new file first and only then swapped in, so a crash in the middle of writing can't spoil it.

At every start, Shadow Rack opens that copy: the rack exactly as you left it, with the session's name and its (edited) state, saved or not. That's why quitting only asks Quit Shadow Rack? and never "Save changes?" - nothing is lost either way. Saving is for keeping a show to open again later.

If the copy can't be read, the last session you opened or saved is opened as it was last saved, and a note says so.

Undo and redo#

⌘Z / ⌘⇧Z, the arrows on the top bar, or Edit > Undo / Redo. The Edit menu names the step (Undo Remove Pro-C 2), and a short message says what was undone (Undid: ...).

You can undo plugin and channel edits: adding, removing, moving, replacing, copying and pasting plugins, chain presets, sidechains, New York buses and sends, and channel name, colour, icon and routing. You undo a change to several channels in one step.

Not undoable: bypass (plugin, channel and BYPASS ALL), New York send levels and ON, the New York tap point, Keep in time with the PA, the tempo, and settings you change inside a plugin's own window.

New session and Open... start a fresh undo history.

Where the files are#

What	Where
Sessions	`~/Documents/Shadow Rack/*.shadowrack`
Chain presets	`~/Documents/Shadow Rack/Chain Presets/`
The automatic copy	`~/Library/Application Support/Shadow Rack/Autosave.shadowrack`

Session files are ordinary files: copy them to a USB stick or a cloud folder to take a show to another Mac. The plugins have to be installed there too. More about every file Shadow Rack writes is on files.