I'm not fully understanding "freezing" tracks

[Macavity224]

From the Logic manual:

 

"Internally, Freeze performs individual offline bounce processes for each frozen track. All plug-ins of a track (including software instrument plug-ins, if applicable, along with all related automation data) are rendered into a freeze file.

 

As long as a track is frozen—following the freeze process—the freeze file will play back in place of the original track (and its CPU-hungry plug-ins). The original track and plug-ins are temporarily deactivated, and use no CPU resources."

 

The reason that I wanted to use the freeze function is to lessen the CPU load because I use Amplitube for modeling on my tracks, which of course uses a lot of resources. So I froze all the tracks, but I'm still getting a "system overload" error (the same one I got when I tried playing the project without frozen tracks). I'm not sure if I'm doing something wrong or not.

 

I know I could also individually bounce each track as an audio file manually to get the same effect, but the freeze function seems to do the same thing, at least to my understanding.

 

Thanks for your help.

[David Nahmani]

Watch your CPU meter. My guess is you simply have other plug-ins in your project that are responsible for the system overload error, independently of whether or not you freeze that particular track.

[Eriksimon]

As an extra question, did you use the green or blue freeze buttons (= pre fader or source only)?

With blue freeze, insert plugins are not rendered and stay active. Also, be aware that there is a "bug" in that plugins that are bypassed on a (green) frozen track are still showing up as if they are active (they stay "lit").

[Macavity224]

As an extra question, did you use the green or blue freeze buttons (= pre fader or source only)?

With blue freeze, insert plugins are not rendered and stay active. Also, be aware that there is a "bug" in that plugins that are bypassed on a (green) frozen track are still showing up as if they are active (they stay "lit").

 

The freeze icons are green. I didn't even know you could switch them. What's the point of using the post-fader freeze option if none of the plugins are bypassed?

[Macavity224]

Watch your CPU meter. My guess is you simply have other plug-ins in your project that are responsible for the system overload error, independently of whether or not you freeze that particular track.

 

What's an example of a plugin that would bypass a frozen track? Unless I'm understanding you wrong.

[Eriksimon]

As an extra question, did you use the green or blue freeze buttons (= pre fader or source only)?

With blue freeze, insert plugins are not rendered and stay active. Also, be aware that there is a "bug" in that plugins that are bypassed on a (green) frozen track are still showing up as if they are active (they stay "lit").

 

The freeze icons are green. I didn't even know you could switch them. What's the point of using the post-fader freeze option if none of the plugins are bypassed?

 

The point of "source only" is if you have a particularly CPU- and/or diskheavy Instrument, but not heavy insert plugins, you can freeze only the instrument, and you're still able to tweak the inserted plugins. I use it a lot for big sampled instruments.

 

From the manual:

Source Only: Freezes the track signal before it is fed into the first effect plug-in. Choosing this mode turns the Freeze button blue.

Note: This Freeze Mode is useful when using CPU-demanding software instruments or flex modes.

 

Pre Fader: Freezes the track signal including all effect plug-ins. Choosing this mode turns the Freeze button green.

 

Logic Pro will create freeze files after receiving the next Play command. This allows you to activate the Freeze buttons of multiple tracks, and render their freeze files in one go.

 

Note: You can abort freeze processes by pressing Command-Period. In this scenario, the portion of the frozen tracks that has already been rendered will remain in the freeze files, and will be used for playback. Frozen tracks will remain silent beyond this point.

 

http://documentation.apple.com/en/logicpro/usermanual/index.html#chapter=9%26section=16%26tasks=true