Applying fx without merging

[rawrooo]

I have a number of drum set tracks that have been cut into a million pieces so the groove can be tweaked out. I want to apply a plugin to the underlying audio without losing my soundbite divisions.

Meaning have the audio for each track still split up into soundbites, but with new processing applied to the master sound file. Mostly we're talking about maybe 25 tracks overall, each with an eq and channel strip plugin. It's not a lot but the 25 channel strips do add up.

The tracks’ grooves aren’t ready to be committed to yet and I want to free up CPU.

I'm not positive yet but it seems the brainworx AMEK 9099 channel strip I’m using now is a bit hungrier than the bx SSL J channel I was using before, and this iMac is showing its age (2015 27” 3.2ghz i5, 24gb RAM, High Sierra 10.13.6, DP 10.13 86175).

THANKS

[pencilina]

You could select the soundbites you want to process and click "apply plugin" for each effect in the order of your processing chain (you might need to create presets from the channel inserts). This will create a new sound file for each process but would preserve your edits unlike freeze. You could also keep a turned off (not muted) copy of the original tracks tucked away in a collapsed folder in case you need to go back. That said, If your pre-rending is turned on and your effect windows are closed, the processor hit shouldn't be too bad. Another approach would be to group the tracks and buss the tracks though the desired effects in aux inserts, the disadvantage of which is auxs don't get pre rendered....

[bayswater]

I’d bounce it to another track with the processing, and mute the original. You’ll get the processor savings. If you have to change something, you can delete the soundbite on the new bounced track, and unmute the original, make the changes, and bounce again.

[mikehalloran]

A couple thoughts…

A 2015 iMac can enjoy a nice performance boost by swapping out the AHCI SSD for a fast NVMe 3 x4 blade such as the 970 EVO. Apple upgraded the bus to 4 lanes in 2015 but didn’t upgrade the SSDs till the 2017 models (only MacBook Pro got the fast SSDs in 2015). You probably won’t see the full 6x theoretical increase in R/W speed but you will certainly notice a major improvement. If you have a Hybrid Drive in there, the performance improvement will be huge and your iMac will run cooler when done. Change the BR2032 NVRAM battery when in there—a CR2032 from the drugstore is fine.

I’d bounce it to another track with the processing, and mute the original. You’ll get the processor savings. If you have to change something, you can delete the soundbite on the new bounced track, and unmute the original, make the changes, and bounce again.

That.

I don’t know what plugs you are using but I do that with some projects.

[Tidwells@aol.com]

I’d bounce it to another track with the processing, and mute the original. You’ll get the processor savings. If you have to change something, you can delete the soundbite on the new bounced track, and unmute the original, make the changes, and bounce again.

You can do this even more easily by choosing "duplicate take" from the takes menu on the track, then do your processing on the new identical take and you will still have all your original unprocessed soundbites to go back to on the original take if needed. I have found the "duplicate take" function to be very useful when I want to try changing something without risking destroying what I already have.

Doug

[Tidwells@aol.com]

However, I could be wrong. If the new take contains the same soundbites, not copies of them, any changes you make to the soundbites themselves will affect both takes, I think.

Doug

[bayswater]

However, I could be wrong. If the new take contains the same soundbites, not copies of them, any changes you make to the soundbites themselves will affect both takes, I think.

Doug

Yes, I generally assume that duplicating a Soundbite just makes a copy of the reference to the audio file region, not a new audio file or region. Unless you do a lot of this stuff, it’s too much mental overhead to remember what happens when you duplicate a soundbite.

[pencilina]

However, I could be wrong. If the new take contains the same soundbites, not copies of them, any changes you make to the soundbites themselves will affect both takes, I think.

Doug

Keep "edge edit copy" turned on and you don't have to worry about it.

[bayswater]

However, I could be wrong. If the new take contains the same soundbites, not copies of them, any changes you make to the soundbites themselves will affect both takes, I think.

Doug

Keep "edge edit copy" turned on and you don't have to worry about it.

Does that work for things other than edge editing?

[pencilina]

It does, like splitting soundbites and applying fades gain changes etc. It would be better described as “edit copy”. The default setting might be off but I’ve never had this unchecked.

[HCMarkus]

The default setting might be off but I’ve never had this unchecked.

Me too. I don't mind extra copies, but certainly DO mind unintended changes in copies that I may or may not notice until it is too late.

[pencilina]

Does anyone know what the default setting is actually? I don't remember as I haven't done a clean install in decades as I time machine restore into new systems. I would imagine having it off being extremely confusing for some users. It might be a nice easy request to change the default (and description)....

[HCMarkus]

Does anyone know what the default setting is actually? I don't remember as I haven't done a clean install in decades as I time machine restore into new systems. I would imagine having it off being extremely confusing for some users. It might be a nice easy request to change the default (and description)....

Not sure... I don't remember having to re-enable EEC when I set up my new Mac with DP11.1 but, then again, there are a lot of things I don't remember these days.

[mikehalloran]

Does anyone know what the default setting is actually?

Not I.

Easy to find, though. You can reset each page in Preferences to its Default or Trash the Preferences file to reset everything.

[pencilina]

It seems this incredibly important option lives only in a right click on a soundbite or in the sequence edit menu.