Workflow - Soft Synth Bounce or Freeze?

[sadicus]

Today I'm seeking ways to be more organized and efficient at creating Tracks using Soft Synths.
example:
Create single  instance of Kontakt with one patch,
then freeze track
or Bounce the audio to a track label it and select a different patch in kontakt and repeat.

[bitflipper]

99% of the time, freeze the synth. Simpler, easier and more easily un-doable. If you find that there's some compelling reason to have a separate audio track (and there are legitimate reasons for doing so), just insert a new audio track and click-drag the frozen track down to it. Of course, this only works for single instances; if you want to combine two or more synths or create a stem submix, then you'll have to bounce. Otherwise, freeze.

[John]

I stopped bouncing when Cakewalk implemented freeze.  I like it better. 

[Blogospherianman]

Freeze is fast and easy, however I’ve had MANY issues with Synths not remembering the settings of my patch when I Unfreeze.  6 out of 12 songs I’m currently working on had this happen to every Synth in the rack upon unfreezing.  Default patch or blank!  Cakewalk is working on this issue, but I have other reasons as well.

Another negative on freezing is that you loose that tracks ability to use the track layers at that point.  Often I want to adjust some things and miss the layers for more complex crossfades.  In Sonar X1 we could still use layers after freezing, so my workflow changed after X1.

You can Multi out stems via freeze, but you must add the appropriate number of Synth audio tracks and assign them to the outputs.  eg Multi track drums.  

Also if I’ve adjusted  edits or timing, unfreeze will essentially undo that stuff.

So for me, Bounce to track is the real winner.  You can bounce to the actual synth audio track if you want even and then disconnect the synth in the synth rack.  Need to rebounce a section, reconnect the synth and all your patches are in tact much more  so than using unfreeze in my experience.  Not everybody’s workflow will induce unfreeze patch loss.  It may have to do with archiving and or deleting.

When using Vienna’s VEP and MIR I have all my Strings for example setup on a stage facing particular directions and micd up.  I highlight the midi and synth audio of the section I finish (1st Violins) and bounce it to it’s own audio track for mixing.  Mute that part (Disable the cells via Vienna and move on) Actually I usually start with the Low strings since they carry more sonic weight and typically the easiest part to put down...

I use the one instance with the whole string section loaded but Bounce to track the individual section pieces.   Sometimes different mic positions.

Bounce accoustic strummer with low voicings, bounce a second one with the slider at the high strung voicings to a separate track.

Sometimes I’ll bounce my piano with 2different presets of mine in the take lanes so I can easily choose  more appropriately during the mixdown stage.

I separate Superior Drummer 3 into multi outs by soloing different individual or group channels and bouncing for separate treatment if needed.

Theres no wrong way, only ones that work or don’t work for you.

Those are my pros and cons. ✌️?

[chuckebaby]

I believe freeze is the best way as well. You can quickly unfreeze to edit which makes it very practical.

I do agree with what some of @Blogospherianman was saying though. I would hate to save a project, open it later and try to unfreeze a synth and have it not unfreeze. This hasn't happen to me but I believe with some older synths...anything is possible. I don't freeze synths personally, but only because I use a max of 10 per project and I don't see a tremendous core spike in only 10 (I say only 10) but I tend to make back ups of anything I intend to commit to. That would include the RAW midi data saved in a file (which I always do) and a soft synth template.

I never swim without a life jacket.

[Blogospherianman]

3 minutes ago, Chuck E Baby said:

but I tend to make back ups of anything I intend to commit to. That would include the RAW midi data saved in a file (which I always do) and a soft synth template.

I never swim without a life jacket.

Same here!! I did recover all lost patches via backups and instrument  preset backups in the project folders.  These are all new VSTs giving me issues Superior Drummer, VSL, NI,