Freeing up CPU?

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pathdoc

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I know most of you probably already do something similiar but I thought I'd mention a workaround I've had to employ.
When I record a drum set I usually use between 7-9 channels depending on the set. I use Drumagog on the bass drum, snare and toms. I'll usually add a little reverb to the snare and overheads. The drums alone can seriously tax my computer.
Once I have a good solid drum mix I solo all the drum channels and export into a single stereo wave file. I create a new project with the original drums channels deleted and import the new stereo drum track which now only takes up a single channel and virtually no CPU.
I know many of you are probably already doing the same and probably have some better ideas. Just thought I see if any other CPU sparing workarounds are out there.
Thanks
 
Most NLEs have the ability to "lock" or "freeze" tracks (the name of the function depends upon the brand of software.) Whatever your editore calls it, what it does is create a temporary copy of that track with all post processing from plugs, automation settings, etc. fully rendered. It then "locks" that track from further editing unless/until in the future you purposely unlock it; in which case it returns to it's original editable non-destructive state.

Locking tracks is not only a great way to conserve CPU resources, it's a lot faster and easier than having to export tracks and create a new project every time you want to lock some tracks and move on.

It's also a great way to keep your project organized and in line even if you're CPU doesn't need help. I've gotten into the habit of rarely ever having more than 2 or 3 tracks unlocked at a time - only the ones that I am currently working on. Everything else remains locked for the time being. This makes it real easy to avoid accidentally editing or deleting the wrong track (who among us has not accidentally done something to the wrong track in a 30 track project, and didn't catch it until it was too late to simply undo? ;) ) and keeps the focus on where I am working.

G.
 
I'm a Cubase SX3 user and have never been able to get the freeze function to work properly. It sure sounds like a great idea.
 
The process was originally called "print to tape" and was used to work on tape machines with a limited number of tracks. Some folk call it making "stems".

I will often try to render down to 1 track per instrument all starting a 0:00.
Everything lines up if I have to export it to another application.
Every track is backed up into one combined file.

Can make things very simple and certainly lowers your CPU and harddrive stress...
 
pathdoc said:
I'm a Cubase SX3 user and have never been able to get the freeze function to work properly. It sure sounds like a great idea.
Click to expand...

Works great for me. :D

Also, if you mix down stems and they don't sit well within a full mix, you run into some pretty serious problems. If you freeze them, you can always un-freeze them, make the changes, and then re-freeze them. In very CPU intensive projects, I end up freezing most of the tracks, then just unfreezing the ones I am working on or want to change................
 
pathdoc said:
I know most of you probably already do something similiar but I thought I'd mention a workaround I've had to employ.
When I record a drum set I usually use between 7-9 channels depending on the set. I use Drumagog on the bass drum, snare and toms. I'll usually add a little reverb to the snare and overheads. The drums alone can seriously tax my computer.
Once I have a good solid drum mix I solo all the drum channels and export into a single stereo wave file. I create a new project with the original drums channels deleted and import the new stereo drum track which now only takes up a single channel and virtually no CPU.
I know many of you are probably already doing the same and probably have some better ideas. Just thought I see if any other CPU sparing workarounds are out there.
Thanks
Click to expand...

I use drumagog too. If I know for sure the samples I'm going to use, I'll bounce each track down with just drumagog processing and re-import that track and get rid of the original. I don't include any EQ, Comp or reverb.
 
The more cumbersome the process for this, the less inclined you're going to be to go back and tweak things once you've bounced stuff down. That can be a good thing if you're one who doesn't know when to stop tweaking, but it can be a bad thing if it makes you not fix things that ought to be fixed as the mix evolves. I'd highly suggest either getting track freeze working (software upgrade?) or upgrading your computer to handle the load. Not that what you're doing is wrong, just a lot of work with sync issues on re-mixes of the stems.
 
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