Saving Mix Scenes (What are the alternatives?)

I'm researched this and it seems the only way to save the version of an entire mix is to do a Save As. This will preserve everything including what I'm most concerned with being Channel FX, Volume, Automation and etc. In other words, the entire Scene for later recall and comparison.

The only downside I see from this approach is the obvious duplication of data on my system which could stack pretty quick if I have GB's of data per mix.

Is there any way other way to jump between different mixes to compare without having to save and reload every time at the present? Older posts suggests that there isn't but just checking to see if there may be a new feature that I'm unaware.

You could use Project Alternatives to do this.

Project Alternatives are just Projects organized differently. You will have to effectively load another Project nonetheless.

Projects sizes are not in the GB range unless you unnecessarily save all the audio files and samples with it, which you are if you save as Package instead of Folder. A Project with a reasonable amount of automation will be under 100Mb, given that you cleared the Backup History and the Backup Saved Versions.

The switch from one project alternative to another is, basically, loading a new project, but probably without having to load more audio (usually). My standard workflow for live performances consisted of 1+ hours of audio on 14 tracks. 6GB project. Each song was turned in to regions. I would mix the first song, save, create a new alternative, print the song from the older alternative. Essentially each song got its own alternative so I could do different things with plugins, etc. When it became time to re-visit a song simply open the project and choose the appropriate alternative.

On my M1 the initial load of the project takes about 4 seconds. Swapping alternatives takes about as long as switching screen sets.

Now to undo old, missing plugins

The difference in size between a Project and a Folder Project isn't noticeable in my case...the project and a saved folder project are identical in size