Song Versions

Versions of the song can be created, and reverted to, later. These versions include the song file and the MIDI and .aem files opened in the tracks.
Typical applications of versions include:

• Create a version before making major changes to the song, so you can revert to the old version if it's not such a good idea after all.
• Try different mixes and store as versions. Note that you can not only change mixer settings, but edit audio and MIDI tracks as well.
• Create a version of any mixes you send to someone, just in case they later feel the old one was better.

Create Version

The Song menu's Create Version option pops up the Create Version dialog which lets you type a name for the version to be created. If there are modifications in the song which haven't been saved yet you can choose whether you want to include the modifications in the version or not. This can come in handy if you open a song and start tweaking the mix: if you think you're onto something good you can still create a version of the song as it was when you opened it, just in case the new mix appears to be not so good after all.

Revert to Version

The Song menu's Revert to Version item lists all available versions. Tooltips show information about the versions, like the date it was created. You can revert to a version by clicking it. If there's no version that equals the song in its current state a version equaling the current state will be created. These automatically created versions are named "Autosave Version 1" etc.

Autosave

Some versions are created automatically:

• Autosave (safety backup): This version is created every 15 minutes. If the computer crashes you can open the song again and revert to this version in order to minimize the amount of work lost. The version is created when the transport is stopped.
• Autosave (discarded version): This version is created if you choose to discard the changes when the song is closed. If you regret this you can open the song again and revert to this version.

Note 1: Autosave versions aren't created until the song has been saved for the first time.

Note 2: Audio files themselves are not stored in the version files, so if you edit an audio file using a third party editor all versions using that file will be affected. You can make a copy of a file and edit the copy to avoid this.

Note 3: The versions mechanism assumes there's only one song in a folder (ie. it assumes every versions it finds in the song's folder is a version of the current song). This is likely the case with MultitrackStudio 5 or newer, but you might want to make sure this is the case with songs you created with older versions before reverting to a version.

Note 4: Some third-party demo version VST / AU plugins pop up a 'demo limitation' message window when the plugin settings are written to file. These messages will appear whenever a version is created.

Under the hood
A version file (.hdrversion file extension) is a song file which also contains the .mid and .aem track data.