Freeze tracks

[brandon]

I struggle to get to grips with the 'freeze' facility.

In a nutshell is it purely to save CPU power? If so, this has been a feature for many many years when processing power was at a premium. Now that processors are ten times faster is there any real need for it or is it because VSts and effects require more power than they ever did?

And secondly  - I watched a video of a guy converting a midi track to audio. But first he used the freeze command on the track and then used the resultant audio and saved it as an audio file. He then imported that audio file into the project. That seems to be beating about the bush a bit i.e.  the long way to go about doing something that should be very straightforward.

I feel I may be missing something here (as I don't see me ever having to use this facility) and would welcome any comments on this subject that may enlighten me.  

Cheers

[scook]

Freeze creates a wav file just like bounce. The wav file is visible in the project audio folder.

It is possible to perform any operation on the frozen track but it may be a better idea to copy the audio to another track instead of manipulating the frozen track. This prevents accidentally losing edits by thawing the track.

[Will.]

On 9/28/2020 at 10:57 PM, brandon said:

I struggle to get to grips with the 'freeze' facility.

In a nutshell is it purely to save CPU power? If so, this has been a feature for many many years when processing power was at a premium. Now that processors are ten times faster is there any real need for it or is it because VSts and effects require more power than they ever did?

And secondly  - I watched a video of a guy converting a midi track to audio. But first he used the freeze command on the track and then used the resultant audio and saved it as an audio file. He then imported that audio file into the project. That seems to be beating about the bush a bit i.e.  the long way to go about doing something that should be very straightforward.

I feel I may be missing something here (as I don't see me ever having to use this facility) and would welcome any comments on this subject that may enlighten me.  

Cheers

I've argued this recently on the forum. It only "converts" the instrument file to an "audio file" - It does not render it to a "wave file," which I requested and argued for plenty reasons. One would be -- "Freezing" brings certain limitation for me. I can't manipulate the file 100% as what I'd like too. So, I rather record it in-house to an Aux track. It would've been nice to "Bounce/Render" it to a "Wav.File" in-house though. 

One benefit of freezing is the ability to "Undo." 

Edited October 3, 2020 by Will_Kaydo

[brandon]

8 hours ago, scook said:

Freeze creates a wav file just like bounce. The wav file is visible in the project audio folder.

It is possible to perform any operation on the frozen track but it may be a better idea to copy the audio to another track instead of manipulating the frozen track. This prevents accidentally losing edits by thawing the track.

Is it really a 'wav' file that is created? Surely a wav file is only a wav file when it is followed by the file extension .wav. An audio file (as is created) is a potential wav file but only once it is saved as one. Would that be technically correct?

 

[scook]

It's really a wav.

Watch the project audio folder when freezing a track. Notice Cakewalk creates a new wav file as a result of the freeze. The name of the file is

<track name>(Bounced, <counter>).wav

 

[brandon]

?

[John Vere]

There are a few reasons other than cpu usage to render a midi track to audio.  
one important reason is you may not have that VST in the future.  
another reason I will freeze or bounce is I only can have two computers authorized for certain VST’s so if I need to use a 3rd computer this solves the problem. 

[brandon]

16 hours ago, John Vere said:

There are a few reasons other than cpu usage to render a midi track to audio.  
one important reason is you may not have that VST in the future.  
another reason I will freeze or bounce is I only can have two computers authorized for certain VST’s so if I need to use a 3rd computer this solves the problem. 

Yes  I agree but you can bounce to track to save your midi as audio. I still dont get why there is a real need to freeze. 

[Lord Tim]

Bounce to track requires you select the MIDI and Softsynth out, select the region you want to bounce, ensure no other tracks are selected, go through options to make sure you're not including any Bus FX or any of that kind of thing. Then you need to archive the original tracks. If you want to make any changes, you have to delete the new bounce, unarchive the original tracks and go again.

Freeze requires clicking the Freeze icon. To unfreeze, click the icon again.

I know which one I'd rather do all day.

[John Vere]

Yes for sure I most always freeze a track. I found it interesting that this seems to work for playback on the computer that, in my case, does not have authorization for XLN and Air VST's which I use a lot of. The tracks play just fine but you cannot easily edit them on that machine.