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[Gunther Mai]

The situation were I put myself with the band's Show File could have been avoided a couple of ways, including opening it in X32 Editor (on a computer NOT connected to the console) and saving the most appropriate scene file to USB and loading it into the Show on the desk.  Opening in an editor also lets me check for embarrassing routing and patch conflicts and correct them before saving to USB.  This was standard practice from the festival days, when blindly loading a file into a desk would ensure tons of fun for no one. 

I learned this the same way and yes it‘s been good practice on festivals to save time and avoid uncomfortable situations during the last 20 years starting with the editors of PM5D and M7. In the venue with the M32 this has changed a bit for me for two reasons:
Most shows I support there are one band shows. When a BE comes with the band I do this global backup i mentioned existing since fw 4.0 first that did not exist in those Yamahas in former days.
When done i ask him wether he wants to load an own file or wants to start with a start file of mine including the patch. As X/M32 is very common here most routined BEs don‘t need my soft patch support and the patch support on the editor is not necessary. The synced editor backs my work anyway cause some work is done easier and faster for example naming.
Yes part of our job is making the band happy and when a BE is part of it for me its easy most times.

[Russell Ault]

{...} OK, so hopefully the 'househead' does not recognize that refusing a BEs showfile takes more time instead of less and that the 'added difficulty' is your interesting view on how our workflow has changed with digital equipment until you get retired. {...}

A couple points of clarification:
(a) Typically we're pretty happy to load a BE's show file if the venue happens to be using consoles that support multiple show files (e.g. anything DiGiCo, Vi-series, etc.), but a factory reset is basically out of the question (and loading a BE show file on the house CL5 would only happen, if at all, after a very long conversation).
(b) Refusing to load the BE's show file might well take more time today, but this will simply be billed back to today's client; initializing a console for the sake of today's client has the potential to take more time tomorrow (which it will be more difficult to get today's client to pay for).
(c) I'm not a house head, so none of what I'm describing is within my control, or even necessarily my preference. I'm merely explaining the systems as they exist here (and, by the sounds of it, other places as well); that they are different from the systems you regularly encounter is of no great surprise to me given that we live in different locations and societies. What I do find surprising is the level of disdain you're willing to direct at people simply for operating within systems that are different from the ones you've come to expect; it'd be like saying "all British drivers must be incompetent" simply because they drive on the other side of the road.

-Russ

[Chris Hindle]

it'd be like saying "all British drivers must be incompetent" simply because they drive on the other side of the road.

-Russ

Actually, they must be pretty damn good, they can successfully drive on the wrong side, without drinking !   
Chris.

[Gunther Mai]

What I do find surprising is the level of disdain you're willing to direct at people simply for operating within systems that are different from the ones you've come to expect; it'd be like saying "all British drivers must be incompetent" simply because they drive on the other side of the road.

Lot of ugly assumptions for some simple differences in possible procedures that are determined by the consoles themselves and unneccssary to engage 'differences in societies' for a bit flexibility in habits.

The main differences in memory management between an X/M32 and all those DiGiCos, Yamahas or Soundcraft Vis are as follows:

One X/M32 can load ONE show. Therefore the manufacturer decided to give a lot more capacity in saving content to scenes. So many users are happy with saving, loading, importing, exporting a scene(preset). If someone wants to use a number of scene(presets) he would like to load a show. This resets all existing scenes in the consoles hardware which is rather close to initializing.
All other mentioned consoles allow saving/loading a huge number of shows containing a huge number of scenes but if you look in deep THERE IS NO REAL STANDARD NEITHER IN TERMINOLOGY NOR IN CONTENT!
Every manufacturer uses his own terminology an made different decisions what to save in which entity.

Let me make an example: In a DiGiCo a show is named session and the scene management allows to do a lot of useful things saved as snapshots. If the user changes (not the technical environment!) and a new session is loaded the user has to do not only his patches but at least has to go through the complete options board for his needs that is saved … nowhere! Neither in sessions nor in templates. If he does a lot of changes here there is a lot of work to do next day. At this point i can understand a HE sometimes refusing access to parts of the console.
As I tried to point out the manufacturer of X/M32 (and this is the console the thread start was about) gave a mighty tool to his users that totally zeroes out the 'one show/reset problem' and that does not exist in any of the consoles above. The backup option given in fw4.0 backups ABSOLUTELY everything including comms and so on … even the network settings are saved. SO NO MATTER WHAT ANY BE HAS SWITCHED AND SCREWED …IF YOU IMPORT YOUR BACKUP THE STATE OF THE CONSOLE IS AS IT HAD NEVER SEEN THIS BE! With that to be done its completely irrelevant wether the console is screwed, resetted or initialized. So with this cheap and ugly machine you can do so with all others you can‘t. (You can backup a DiGiCo but you have to go down to the OS, you need calm and enough time and you should know a lot more than what you can read in the reference manual  )
Thats my clarification and as you can see this can be done in USA, Germany or Aserbeidschan no matter what the union or the president says. Everyone can do it, its simple and takes nearly no time and can be done on the left and on the right side of the street.

[Russell Ault]

{...} So with this cheap and ugly machine you can do so with all others you can‘t. {...}
Thats my clarification and as you can see this can be done in USA, Germany or Aserbeidschan no matter what the union or the president says. Everyone can do it, its simple and takes nearly no time and can be done on the left and on the right side of the street.

Yup, if the venue happens to own an X/M32 then the possibilities you're describing definitely exist on a technical level.

Here's the thing: want to know how many of the venues I work for (or, for that matter, have ever worked for) own an X/M32? One. And it only arrived last week.

And who knows, maybe with this new console the lead technician there will go against local practice and setup a system where he's happy to have anyone show up with a USB stick and go hog wild. It is, as you say, technically possible. But I doubt it, because that venue isn't really a roadhouse, doesn't see a lot of bands, and I don't think has had a single BE step foot in it in the entire time it's been open. Why would he bother? It'd just create one more thing to screw up at the end of the call.

-Russ

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