User manual

189
VST Instruments and Instrument tracks
3. Click the Freeze button for the VST Instrument (the
button to the left of the VST Instrument slot), or the Freeze
button in the Inspector for the instrument track.
The Freeze Instrument Options dialog appears with the
following options for the Freeze operation:
• Select “Freeze Instrument Only” if you don’t want to
freeze any insert effects for the VST Instrument channels.
If you are using insert effects on the VST Instrument channel(s) and want
to be able to edit, replace or remove these after freezing the VST Instru-
ment, you should select this option.
• Select “Freeze Instrument and Channels” if you want to
freeze all pre-fader insert effects for the VST Instrument
channels.
If your VST Instrument channels are set up with the desired insert effects
and you don’t need to edit these, select this option.
• You can set a Tail Size time to let sounds complete their
normal release cycle.
Otherwise, the sound might be cut off at the very end of the freeze file.
• When you activate “Unload Instrument when Frozen”,
the frozen VST Instrument will be removed.
This is useful if you are freezing an instrument that uses a lot of RAM, e.g.
for pre-loading samples. By unloading the instrument, the RAM becomes
available for other plug-ins, etc.
4. Click OK.
A progress dialog is shown while the program renders the VST Instru-
ment audio to a file on your hard disk.
The Freeze button lights up. If you check the Project win-
dow at this point, you will find that the relevant MIDI/in-
strument tracks have grayed out controls in the Track list
and Inspector. Furthermore, the MIDI parts are locked and
cannot be moved.
5. Play back the project.
You will hear exactly the same sound as before freezing the VST Instru-
ment – but the CPU load will be considerably less!
• If you selected “Freeze Instrument and Channels”, any
insert effects used by the VST Instrument are also frozen
(except for the post-fader inserts – Cubase only). How-
ever, you can always adjust level, pan, sends and EQ for
frozen VST Instruments.
Unfreezing
If you need to make adjustments (either to the MIDI tracks,
to the VST Instrument parameters or to the VST Instru-
ment channels if these were frozen) you need to unfreeze
the VST Instrument:
1. Click the Freeze button for the VST Instrument again
(either in the VST Instruments window or in the Inspector).
You will be asked to confirm this operation.
2. Click “Unfreeze”.
The tracks and VST Instrument are restored and the rendered “freeze
file” is deleted.
VST instruments and processor load
If you are working with VST 3 instruments, another way to
relieve processor load is the option “Deactivate Plug-in
when silence is detected” in the Preferences dialog
(VST–Plug-ins page). This is described in detail in the
section “Smart plug-in processing” on page 163.
The Freeze button in the
VST Instruments window…
…and in the Inspector.