OK, Billy, I think we are closing in on this. You are correct that BIAB 'does something' before it can play the song or render the song in any form. That's what I was trying to say.

The conditions to regenerate should be clear but the picture has been muddied by occasional oddities where it regenerates when not required, or worse, does not regenerate when you think it should. These cases have been fixed by patches, but they do tend to reoccur after many years, to be patched again. That may explain your observation. Yes, as you say, Freeze is your friend here.

I think the answer to the last question, is there a direct (my emphasis) way to get back to the original generation, is a No. You cannot Edit, Undo, for example. The best method probably is to do an end run around the process: make lots of Freezes and Saves of versions when developing a song.

BIAB 2025 Win Audiophile. Software: Studio One 7 Pro, Swam horns, Acoustica-7, Notion 6, Song Master Pro, Win 11 Home. Hardware: Intel i9, 32 Gb; Roland Integra-7, Presonus 192 & Faderport 8, Royer 121, Adam Sub8 & Neumann 120 monitors.