thanks for the reply Paul. I understand the reluctance to publish your format although surely the changing features argument applies to yourselves internally as well (I assume you make shows backwards compatible). Of course as you say you format is not easy to hand decode, I am trying but have found the block checksum at the beginning of each record has me scratching my head (some shifting or a constant table involved methinks!). Of course I will persevere as it has now become an irritation to me, If anyone has any clues to hoe this is done I would be interested. I purchased the desk (I think one of the first ten 500s) based on a demo at plasa of the original illusion (5 years ago) and because I had good experience with your other desks. I didn't even think you might have gone to any trouble to deliberately obscure the information in show files. You and the others at zero88 have made a great product in the illusion500. The change to schadow buttons and the metal case make this a desk to compete with the big boys, the lack of an offline editor is not however going to sell more desks. As for ascii show files, what about using XML, it has worked well for us in a slightly different field as it allows more or less information to be imported or exported.