DIGICO SD7–SD12 · .SES

Names and mix labels in. The channel strip, untouched.

A DiGiCo session is a native blob per channel. load·in writes the fields it can prove — to a specific, published ceiling per model — and carries the rest of each strip through without reading it.

Open load·in See what it won't touch

01 — The format

One session file, six console sizes

.ses is a DiGiCo SD session — a native binary export, saved through the DiGiCo SD offline editor or from the console itself. SD7, SD8, SD9, SD10, SD11, and SD12 all use the family, at very different channel and mix-bus scales.

File Format

.ses

Native SD session, binary

Models

SD7–SD12

SD11i exports the SD11 template — see limits below

02 — What load·in reads

The full session, held as native blocks

Import a .ses and load·in reads the channel and mix structure into your plot. Internally, each channel is carried as a native strip — the whole block moves together on import, edit, and export, rather than being decoded field by field.

03 — What load·in writes

Names and mix labels — to a proven ceiling per model

Channel names and mix bus labels are authored writes, each proven against that model's own factory session up to a specific channel/bus count. Past that ceiling, entries are not verified to write — the table is the real, measured number, not the desk's rated maximum.

Model	Names proven to	Mix labels proven to
SD7	72 ch	12 mixes
SD8	60 ch	12 mixes
SD9	48 ch	12 mixes
SD10	96 ch	12 mixes
SD11	32 ch	6 mixes
SD11i	32 ch^*	6 mixes^*
SD12	unverified	unverified

^*SD11i exports the SD11 session template — see the limits section. SD12 has no controlled real-desk captures yet; treat writeback there as unverified until it does.

✓Channel names — up to the ceiling above

✓Mix bus labels — up to the ceiling above

≈Everything else in the channel strip — colors, icons, stereo config, mute, fader, pan, HPF, EQ, gate, comp — moves with the channel on import and export as native, untouched strip data. load·in doesn't decode it, so it can't corrupt it, but it also isn't authoring new values into it. On a same-console reorder, this isn't just an absence-of-editing argument: a dedicated check swaps, rotates, and re-inserts channels and confirms every strip lands in its new slot exactly as it was, for every SD model.

04 — What load·in leaves alone

The whole strip, as a block

DiGiCo's session format is dense enough that load·in treats each channel strip as an opaque unit rather than a field-by-field structure. That's a narrower write surface than X32 or CL/QL, but it buys the same safety guarantee everywhere: what you didn't touch, you get back exactly. On same-console reorder of an imported session, that guarantee is proven, not assumed — a dedicated check moves, swaps, and rotates channels and reads every strip back exactly as it was in its new slot, across every SD model.

05 — What load·in won't claim

The honest edges

—Phantom power (48V) IS written to Mic-type rack sockets — always re-check 48V at the desk before connecting ribbon or unbalanced sources. Aux send level/on is written from controlled captures; verify on your desk.

—Colors, icons, stereo config, mute, fader and pan are preserved as native strip data — not authored by the Strip editor. Processing on/off is the exception: HPF, EQ, gate and comp switches are written where you flip them in the app.

—SD11i exports the SD11 template. The exported file identifies itself as an SD11 session — SD11i-specific geometry isn't written.

—SD12 has no controlled real-desk captures yet. Treat name and mix-label writeback as unverified until real SD12 files land.

—DiGiCo Quantum is a separate, beta-only family — not covered by this page.

06 — Before the show

Verify it before it's the desk's problem

Open the exported .ses in the DiGiCo SD offline editor and confirm names and mix labels landed on every channel you edited.
If your channel count is near the ceiling for your model, check the last few channels specifically — that's where an unproven edge would show up first.
Load into a spare session, not over a show-critical one.
Verify colors, phantom, and aux sends manually on the desk — load·in preserved whatever was already there but didn't author new values.

Other supported workflows: Avid VENUE S6L · Allen & Heath dLive · the full list is on the console support page.

Names and mix labels, proven per model — not per press release.

Import your SD session. Build the plot. Export a patched copy.

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