maxed CPU vs workflow - when to bounce to audio...

[xrylex]

in my current project ive got about 8 different instances of massive, all diff patches, with different plug in chains. all modulating all over the place. both in massive in and with post processing in the chains. all of these tracks are frozen to save CPU. im around 70-80% or more when playing the track... needless to say this blows.

im thinking that its obvious that i need to bounce all of these tracks down as audio stems to free up CPU. im not going to go back at cut up any single notes and load into a sampler. thats not how i work my basslines.. i need to be able to modulate within the synth and additional plugs at the same time.

my question is regarding workflow and how to approach the off chance that i need to go back and change something...
anyone dealing with this? separate sessions for pre/post audio bouncing? leaving the orig tracks in the session with everything disabled?

thoughts?



btw, already upgraded my ram to its max on this machine, and cant afford to upgrade atm, (running a macbookpro. 2.4ghz intel duo. 4gb ram.)

[Insahn]

I do pre/post production sessions. As a matter of fact I have multiple versions of the same project. This might not be totally efficient or streamlined, but it ensures I don't lose anything. Not sure what DAW you use, but I use Ableton, so if I bounce a bunch of tracks down to audio and I have a previous project that contains the midi, I can pull the track from my previous project into my current project if I absolutely need to change something. It doesn't bring in the effect chain, but that's not too hard to solve.

[Eridu]

Maybe increasing the buffer on your soundcard if you wouldnt mind the latency? THat could save you some cpu

[ARTFX]

Recently upgraded to a AMD Phenom II x6 1090T processor, this solved all my CPU problems with my old Dual Core.

[pdomino]

Bounce the audio out, simpler

[IC0N]

Sounds like just bouncing stuff out into a post bounce session would be the easiest solution. Just make sure you keep the pre bounce session.

[circusjam]

in my current project ive got about 8 different instances of massive, all diff patches, with different plug in chains. all modulating all over the place. both in massive in and with post processing in the chains. all of these tracks are frozen to save CPU. im around 70-80% or more when playing the track... needless to say this blows.

im thinking that its obvious that i need to bounce all of these tracks down as audio stems to free up CPU. im not going to go back at cut up any single notes and load into a sampler. thats not how i work my basslines.. i need to be able to modulate within the synth and additional plugs at the same time.

my question is regarding workflow and how to approach the off chance that i need to go back and change something...
anyone dealing with this? separate sessions for pre/post audio bouncing? leaving the orig tracks in the session with everything disabled?

thoughts?



btw, already upgraded my ram to its max on this machine, and cant afford to upgrade atm, (running a macbookpro. 2.4ghz intel duo. 4gb ram.)

I had the same problem, and i also upgraded to a 1090T, needless to say its an amazing processor!!

[xrylex]

Sounds like just bouncing stuff out into a post bounce session would be the easiest solution. Just make sure you keep the pre bounce session.

i think you guys are totally right about pre/post bounce sessions. im going to restructure some things today and move forward with bouncing to audio and then working the post bounce session forward.

ill try the buffer adjustment as well but im not sure that it will change much.

[trench]

I do pre/post production sessions. As a matter of fact I have multiple versions of the same project. This might not be totally efficient or streamlined, but it ensures I don't lose anything. Not sure what DAW you use, but I use Ableton, so if I bounce a bunch of tracks down to audio and I have a previous project that contains the midi, I can pull the track from my previous project into my current project if I absolutely need to change something. It doesn't bring in the effect chain, but that's not too hard to solve.

I just started using Ableton and am running into the same issue. I'm rocking an old computer so I can only get about 5 (or less) instances of Massive running at the same time.

I noticed you said "I can pull the track from my previous project into my current project". How do you do this? I'm used to working in a DAW were I can have multiple sessions\projects running at the same time. All I needed to do then was copy and paste VST's, Chains, and entire tracks over to the new project. I noticed that Ableton will only let you have one project open at a time.. Which keeps me from doing this. Sound like you have a work around I’m missing?

[xrylex]

there is no way to "pull" a track from one project to another. but we are talking about bouncings stems, so you just bring the audio bounced from one session into the new one...

[Digezt]

What about freezing the tracks? That way if you want to go back to edit it you still can ?

[-[2]DAY_-]

save as, bounce to audio. remove instances of massive. done.

This is why i think it's silly to hang dearly onto synth patches for the entire session. The patch is meant to make a sound thats part of a composition, get it down to 2track and move on. Can't be having bloated project files slowing down a session. If you really find something wrong with a soundbite, re-open version 1, tweak synth, bounce that section again and drag that into the main project file.

I would never be tweaking 8 synths at once, to each their own though

[xrylex]

i totally needed to hear that. it does sound retarded doesnt it? appreciate the perspective.

[howiegroove]

Here is what I do...

I have some crazy ass chains going on in my channels and I tend to have some crazy shit going on. I will make a sound from an idea. Then when my CPU goes apeshit, I will do a collect all and save in Live, and then i will freeze and flatten the audio. Then what I do is save the project as a completely new version (ie. August Dubstep v01, v02, v03, etc). When I do that, all I have to do is go in the previous versions and pull in the channels that I want to change. I also use Omnisphere quite often as well, so this comes in handy.

[wub]

Honestly, just bounce the audio out and use it as is. Sometimes I find it better to just bite the bullet and take the audio as is, as opposed to sending hours and hours tweaking it beyond belief.

[pete_bubonic]

Just to satisfy my curiousity, how many tracks, send effects and vsts are you using? can you post a screenshot of your seq window?

[Toric]

Just curious.

I don't hate working with midi, but I think working with audio files gives you some more control over your tunes.

Opinions?

[Teknicyde]

I bounce and save the instance for backup incase I decide to change something... then if I do, I just open it, change it, bounce it again.

[Electric_Head]

I bounce and save the instance for backup incase I decide to change something... then if I do, I just open it, change it, bounce it again.

^this

[Toric]

I bounce and save the instance for backup incase I decide to change something... then if I do, I just open it, change it, bounce it again.

Yea, the hide feature in logic is really ace. Sometimes I wish there were more colors for channel strips though!