Freezing to multitrack audio?

[digitiki]

Ok, so I've created a song with virtual instruments. Now I want to convert it to audio for final mixing The MIDI drum parts are separated to multiple MIDI tracks (trk 1=kick, trk2=snare, etc, etc.) Now I want to bounce or freeze those tracks to individual audio tracks (so I have VI kick converted to an individual track, VI snare on its own track, etc). Freezing tracks seems to always want to "write" over the previous frozen track, so it doesn't seem possible to perform track freezing multiple times to get multiple tracks.

So does that mean I have to bounce to disk for each track, then import the bounced files into their own new audio track? That seems rather tedious.

Is there a feature or process that lets you bounce or freeze selected tracks into multiple audio tracks in one swoop? I don't want to keep all my VR tracks virtual for final mixing.

[Shooshie]

Ok, so I've created a song with virtual instruments. Now I want to convert it to audio for final mixing The MIDI drum parts are separated to multiple MIDI tracks (trk 1=kick, trk2=snare, etc, etc.) Now I want to bounce or freeze those tracks to individual audio tracks (so I have VI kick converted to an individual track, VI snare on its own track, etc). Freezing tracks seems to always want to "write" over the previous frozen track, so it doesn't seem possible to perform track freezing multiple times to get multiple tracks.

So does that mean I have to bounce to disk for each track, then import the bounced files into their own new audio track? That seems rather tedious.

Is there a feature or process that lets you bounce or freeze selected tracks into multiple audio tracks in one swoop? I don't want to keep all my VR tracks virtual for final mixing.

As with all things, it depends...

You can bounce simultaneously as many tracks as you want if they each have a unique output...

• OR

You can bounce simultaneously as many tracks as you want if you don't mind those with shared outputs going to the same track.

Example:

• Project: 20 tracks MIDI
  Virtual Instruments: 5
  Tracks per instrument: 4

In this example you can freeze up to five unique tracks at a time. You can freeze the whole project in four passes.

• OR

You can free all tracks at once and get 5 tracks, each of which contains the output of four MIDI tracks.

It will freeze exactly what you select, in the state that exists in each track at the time you select it, but it cannot split the audio output of a single VI into each of the MIDI tracks that feed it. Nor can we; what we hear from any given VI is what will be frozen into that VI's audio output track.

Shoosh

[Shooshie]

Actually, I guess I missed the key to your question: how do you avoid writing over the tracks when you do another pass?

Create audio tracks and name them. Drag or copy/paste the audio into those tracks.

Another method is simply to set up those tracks in the first place, then record the audio directly to them.

Shooshie

[frankf]

.....Freezing tracks seems to always want to "write" over the previous frozen track, so it doesn't seem possible to perform track freezing multiple times to get multiple tracks.

With MIDI drum tracks you need to isolate each part (BD,snare, HH, etc.) on its own MIDI track and channel and have each drum sound returned on a unique VI audio output. I use Auxes to for the returns. Or do what Shooshie suggests-duplicate and rename the first Frozen track, then Freeze the second, repeat.. Doing so, however, defeats the ability to Un Freeze all but the last track frozen. For me, Un Freezing a track is one of the main reasons for using Freeze in the first place.


Frank Ferrucci

[Shooshie]

.....Freezing tracks seems to always want to "write" over the previous frozen track, so it doesn't seem possible to perform track freezing multiple times to get multiple tracks.

With MIDI drum tracks you need to isolate each part (BD,snare, HH, etc.) on its own MIDI track and channel and have each drum sound returned on a unique VI audio output. I use Auxes to for the returns. Or do what Shooshie suggests-duplicate and rename the first Frozen track, then Freeze the second, repeat.. Doing so, however, defeats the ability to Un Freeze all but the last track frozen. For me, Un Freezing a track is one of the main reasons for using Freeze in the first place.


Frank Ferrucci

I think you just identified the reason I never quite "got" freezing, and why I don't use it now. It would make a LOT more sense if you just put every single MIDI track on a different instrument channel, then you'd get separate tracks for it, and unfreezing would remain a possibility.

Geez, I might try using that again.

Shoosh

[bayswater]

Do more or less what Frank says and do it all at once, and do it in your template, so you only have to do it once. Create audio output routing for each MIDI track going to a VI using the multiple outputs from the VI that appear in the Bundles window. You can just route directly to an audio track, and have monitoring turned on. When you're ready, record arm the audio tracks and do a pass of the sequence.

[frankf]

One more thing: I feel Freezing is primarily a resource saver or and archive aid (MIDI>audio). With recent more powerful Macs there may be no need to save resources. But it's nice that it's there if my system gets bogged down.