Freezing a track with a MIDI-controlled VSTi

[Grzegorz Moskal]

As in title - how do I freeze an audio track, which has a MIDI-controlled effect? Freezing it normally causes the effect to ignore the MIDI inputs.

[bitflipper]

You can freeze just the audio portion and leave any effect plugins active. Right-click on the track header and choose Freeze -> Freeze Options" from the context menu. Un-check the "Track FX" option.

This assumes it's an effect in the FX bin, as opposed to an effect within a synthesizer or sampler. Those kinds of effects always get frozen.

[Grzegorz Moskal]

That's a nope – the plugin is a harmonizer effect, which is using a lot of resources. This is why I need to freeze it

[bitflipper]

In that case, you're stuck. Frozen means frozen. Maybe you can identify other tracks that can be safely frozen and thus free up resources for the harmonizer.

I deal with this conundrum often. My favorite drum synth is Superior Drummer, which is a huge hog. But I like to be able to tweak the drums right up until I'm done with the project. Consequently, I freeze everything else first and leave that one instrument for last. Sometimes my computer just runs out of steam and I have no choice but to freeze the drums, too. After that, if I need to make a change I have to un-freeze, edit, and re-freeze. Just a fact of life until we all have supercomputers.

[Grzegorz Moskal]

So this is quite the opposite - I need no tweaks, I'm happy with the result of the track and I want to free the resources...

Tried routing it to a separate bus or aux track, but they can't be frozen just like that.

[scook]

Use bounce to track(s) then archive the original tracks.

This does the same thing as freeze except writes the data to a new track.

When using bounce+archive on a soft synth make sure to disconnect the soft synth using the synth rack. This will free up the rest of the resources used by the synth, just like freeze.

[Grzegorz Moskal]

That's what I'm talking about!