In this quick tip I'm going to show you a trick to lighten the CPU load while mixing in your DAW. I will demonstration this using Reaper but this technique will work in most any other recording software as well. Don't forget to leave a comment below after you've watched the video.
About to try this with Ableton. With all my VSTs it gets so bogged down, open to any and every tip to help my little cpu function better! Thank you so much
I use Sonar and freeze tracks all the time to save PC usage. I’ve never run into a project where my PC stops working due to to many plugins or tracks. The only issue with freezing is that you can’t adjust anything on that track unless you unfreeze it. I would like to know what the pros use in the studio for PCs? I guess it would be very fast hard drives and processors along with a large amount of ram. Most likely they are using Macs. I would like to get a faster PC one day though. I use an XP machine with 4 gigs of ram at the moment with 7200rpm drives. I was thinking of going to a windows 7 machine with a dual core or quad core when the funds are available. Thank you for posting the video!
How is this different from freezing tracks (in Sonar)?
Hey Eric, I Sonars Freeze function is basically the same thing. Reaper is a bit more robust in that you can use this function to render the effects to the track and get two copies on the same track timeline to choose from (the rendered one and the original). With Sonar, you can get a similar result just by unfreezing that specific track. So in general it’s really the same thing.
I will have to try this with Presonus Studio One. Thanks Dave, this has been very helpful and interesting.
Hi David, cannot thank you enough for the cpu tip, and just at the right time as I was getting some bad stutter in Reaper, problem solved, you’re a diamond.
Your ver welcome Mike, so glad to have helped!
yeah, Mike, that was a great tip….very useful. I spell my last name with an “a” Happy mixing!
Mike McAvoy here… I use Sonar X3 Producer and was able to go into my daw and apply what David teaches us in this tip. You don’t need Reaper to apply any of David’s tips. That’s what’s so good about this stuff. I believe every daw has a way to do these techniques. Things may be worded differently or be in a different menu or list, but these are 99.9% universal tips. Thanks so much, David!