applying plugins to each track

[skiz]

hey guys,

im recording at home thru a firepod into my computer. the recording is going great but my computer just cant keep up.. using 5 mics for drum track, 3 of which get compression and reverb and then the guitars also get compression and reverb and my computer cant keep up when all the tracks are being processed in real time and my computer just freezes.

is it wrong to actually apply these plugins to the track once im happy with how they sound? so that the processing is done immediately and i free up some processing power for the other tracks im recording?

also what is the best order i should apply the plugins in? basically all im applying is compression but that means it goes compression -> then EQ -> then reverb rather than sending the EQ into the compressor

is this ok? is it common practice?

 

[SouthSIDE Glen]

my computer cant keep up when all the tracks are being processed in real time and my computer just freezes.

You have a couple of options.

First of all, there's no real need to apply your plugs during tracking other than as a time-saver. If your PC just can''t keep up with that, though, then you'll should just forget the shortcut and wait until mixing to apply the processing.

Second, once all your tracks are in the PC, your software should have a way of "locking" or "freezing" individual tracks. What this lets you do is pre-render and temporarily save the results of your effects on each locked track, so you can go ahead and work on other tracks without having to worry about your computer's real-time capabilities. The good news is that you can still un-lock or un-freeze any track and change the effects processing any time you want. What ever you pre-render is not something that you are ncessarily stuck with. (This is a big problem, BTW with recording through the plugs, you're stuck with the results.)

This locking/freezing is not only common practice, it's something I'd recommend as common practice. Whenever I have more than just a handful of tracks to mix, I will lock all but two or three or so at a time, leaving only those tracks that I am currently adjusting or submixing unlocked. Before I started doing this, there was more than once where I accidentally went and edited the wrong track; by locking all the tracks I am not currently working on, that helps keep such mistakes from happening.

G.

 

[skiz]

awesome glen,

can you tell me how to do this in cubase at all with the plugins??

also sorry about posting in 2 forums, just didnt know which was the right one for the question to be in. tried to delete the other thread but i dont know how.

 

[ecktronic]

awesome glen,

can you tell me how to do this in cubase at all with the plugins??

also sorry about posting in 2 forums, just didnt know which was the right one for the question to be in. tried to delete the other thread but i dont know how.

To freeze a track in Cubase you choose the track you want to freeze, then click the icon that looks like a snow flake. You will find this at the top left of Cubase.
If you don't see the icon then click the track name (also located at the top left of Cubase) then a load of buttons at the top left should appear, one of them being the freeze button.

Freezing is a solution to your problem but it takes time to freeze tracks, so I would suggest getting more RAM. I have 2 GB ram at the moment and can handle up to about 40 tracks with at least 2 plugs on each track.

Reverb takes up ALOT of CPU so I would make a stereo FX track and put a reverb on the FX track.
Then use the sends on your tracks to choose how much you want to send to the reverb FX track.

For example you could use 1 FX track for your guitars and another for your toms and another for your vocals.

If you don't know about sends and FX tracks then check the manual.

Hope this helps,
Eck

 

[Daisy]

I would suggest getting more RAM.

I concur.

.

 

[danny.guitar]

Real-time effects don't use much RAM at all, but a lot of CPU. So for these kinds of effects, you need to either get a faster CPU, less CPU-intensive plugins, or freeze/bounce the tracks and remove the effects.

RAM is important for sample-based effects that load samples into memory (drum machines, Reason, etc.).

 

[Massive Master]

can you tell me how to do this in cubase at all with the plugins??

Jiminny... Doesn't anybody RTFM anymore?

Anyway - Generally you aren't going to "insert" verb... You'd use an aux.


It's in the manual also.

 

[TerraMortim]

sure, no problem with doing that at all.. I often run into really complicated mixes that I end up having to do a bit of stem mixing on so that my computer doesn't die...so I'll take say the 3 or 4 kick drum tracks that I usually have and bounce them to one audio track and then save a new copy of the session (not over the top of the last one... never do that, or you couldn't go back) take out all of the tracks that I bounced and replace them with the one stem.

but yeah, that's not all that much going on for the computer to die... I think an upgrade is a good idea.. more ram, faster processor...something. I get to around 30 some odd tracks before my computer gives me problems (and I use a lot of softsynths)...and my computer is a few years old.

 

[TerraMortim]

Jiminny... Doesn't anybody RTFM anymore?

Anyway - Generally you aren't going to "insert" verb... You'd use an aux.


It's in the manual also.

sometimes I insert a verb...no reason why you can't.. either way works, depending on what you're doing with it... some of my ambient stuff would get too confusing to use the several impulse response reverbs that go on almost every track with automation of almost every parameter. I'd have to have more auxes than tracks lol. plus... in logic, you can't freeze auxes or buses.... sooooo. inserting it unless you absolutely need to have it on an aux is a bit of a better practice...at least for the act of freezing.

 

[skiz]

i do use sends for my reverbs

and yea.. i hate reading

 

[skiz]

ok so i cant find this snow flake icon in my cubase to freeze my tracks.. i searched freezing tracks in the html help and all it told me was to select a track, go to audio, and then freeze edits. so i did this and it did nothing.. what am i doing wrong? i would love to use this freeze option as it sounds like it would be a life saver for my cpu!

 

[Massive Master]

Dig out the manual -- It's all there.

 

[jaybriggs84]

If youre just mixing and not recording then turn up your buffer

 

[Russtopher]

If it's Cubase LE, I don't believe there's a freeze option. Been a bit since I used LE, so I'm not *positive*....

 

[Cosmonaut]

For time based effects such as Reverb, Delay and chorus, use FX send tracks as stated above, that way you can send all your instrument groups to one reverb track. This will ssave you a ton of CPU

 

[skiz]

yeah im using cubase LE cause it came with my firepod, and it seems you're right about the lack of the freezing button..

bah

 

[legionserial]

For time based effects such as Reverb, Delay and chorus, use FX send tracks as stated above, that way you can send all your instrument groups to one reverb track. This will ssave you a ton of CPU

+1

Could also output a bunch of tracks to a group track and stick the effect on that in some cases.