Can you FREEZE BUSES in Cakewalk? YES! but only if...

[@Yedkhula]

Hay man..!! U Deserves More SUBSCRIBERS..!! Best wishes for Ur Life.. & Progress..

[@lightgrenade]

Thanks!

[@trevorbayfield4006]

Well explained, it's complicated but you did well in keeping it simple. Your track sounds good btw 👍

[@lightgrenade]

Cheers Trevor, I appreciate that. It was certainly quite a complicated one to explain. Track should be out soon, I'll link back here once it is.

[@lightgrenade]

Hi Trevor. This track is finally out, should you still be interested. asboc.band/vertigo-season

[@michaelbrodie931]

Well thought out sir, I use Cakewalk also but now I'm going to completely change my work flow. Thank you.

[@lightgrenade]

Cheers for watching Michael. Glad you found it useful!

[@RobSanx]

Thank you. It will be useful with one particular plugin I thought I couldn't freeze. Now I can. I will also use Archive. Never thought about this feature. I had a couple songs where I just muted some tracks but Archive would've been better. 🙏

[@lightgrenade]

Glad to hear you found it useful! Archive is better a lot of the time. There's nothing worse hitting global mute and having no idea what's happened, and forgetting what you previously had muted!

[@RobSanx]

@@lightgrenade Yes, you're right. That's a big problem I've already noticed.

[@melturn]

Thanks. Great tips there. Hope you do some more cakewalk vids👍

[@lightgrenade]

No worries, and thanks for watching. I'm just trying to concentrate on some Cakewalk related stuff that hasn't already been covered by others. Open to ideas!

[@melturn]

@@lightgrenade Thanks. I’m sure anything you can think would be useful to know would be great.

[@basseldahdouh8736]

So basically an aux track can be used the same way as bus, but instead of being under the “busses” section its gon be under “tracks” right? And i’ll be able to freeze em?

[@lightgrenade]

Yes, correct! You just need to archive the tracks feeding the aux after freezing or else you will get double signal.

[@royaltyfreemusiccollective8662]

Yeah that's what I got too. Good explanation, I've never used Aux tracks as I've always just used busses. I don't need to freeze mine as my PC is a high end desktop but it's cleared up the mystery and I don't feel like I'm missing anything now thanks.

[@fabiorubato9434]

hey, thanks for this approach. Apart from mixing down a track including track and bus FX, this was pretty much the best way I could do things to reduce CPU, when projects became increasingly complicated. What about Midi Synths? What's your approach for these? And say you have a drum synth like AD2, which I route out to 16 channels, how would you manage this? I haven't ever used 'archiving'. I assume you can only do this on audio and not midi tracks/instruments? Cheers

[@lightgrenade]

Hey, no problem, and thanks for watching. You can do the same with soft synths. Archiving, aux recording and freezing works with all track types I'm sure. For something like AD2 with multiple outs, I would get the sound I like within the plugin, route to separate outs, and then route these out tracks to a drum aux, record that drum aux and freeze. It should work the exact same way depsite the AD2 out tracks not holding any data. However, If you want to be more granular and use audio data, you could route every AD2 out track to its own aux, record each input to each aux, then archive and hide the initial AD2 out tracks and AD2 master track. This way, you would have a bunch of drum audio tracks ready for mixing, and be able to set things up exactly how I have in this video Of course, you wouldn't be able to make changes as easy this way. However, it would make you commit to the drum sound which could be a good thing. If you wanted to make a change to the drum sound, you would need to un-archive the initial AD2 tracks, make your changes, and re record. Personally, I bounce to midi to audio as soon as can as I like to commit to a sound, and audio tracks are better for system performance as opposed to midi. Hope this helps.

[@fabiorubato9434]

@@lightgrenade Hey man, thanks for that. I had gone on to set up AD2 - which I load from an 'all out' template, and did the first idea you mentioned...all outs to one aux drum sub, then routed to drum master, then to mix master. I figured like a bus track, I could place not only FX on the individual tracks but I guess obviously on the Drum Sub. What do you mean by more 'granular' with each drum out to an aux and then I suppose again routing them to a drum sub, drum master, mix master? That's certainly a lot of work doing such. I would have to set up a template for this, if I could see the value. Yes, I do get the committing to audio to save cpu and of course stopping you from perhaps losing the focus of the drum idea, in this instance. On the other hand, changes, additions blah blah, are often needed as the song develops and esp in collabs, this is often the case. So I suppose I'd be leaving such a commitment until I'm pretty sure of both the sound and arrangement. thanks for getting back, I appreciate it. :-)

[@lightgrenade]

@@fabiorubato9434 No worries, I hope it's working out well. It can be a bit to get your head around at first, but it certainly helps when projects get heavy! The AD2 > Aux idea is most likely overkill, I was just thinking out loud, trying to think of ways to save you CPU. Come to think of it, I might actually post a download link to one of my templates in the description!

[@fabiorubato9434]

@@lightgrenade thanks, love to have a look at it.

[@lightgrenade]

@@fabiorubato9434 Hey man. I have just uploaded an example template if you would like a look. Download link in description.

[@crawlingman7003]

All your console meters look mono. Am I seeing those wrong?

[@Broken-Silencer]

Interesting. Another way, is to send to Bus, then on that Bus, create an Aux track (Which will appear in the Channel Strips). You can then Record Enable the Aux Track, record the audio, and afterwards, Mute the Bus. That way you have the option to mix with the Busses, if your happy with the levels. I'm not sure if this applies to your work flow, but I'm coming from the same approach of saving CPU resources. Thanks for your videos, I have subbed since your video about console 1, as I'm considering getting one. Do you intend making anymore videos about that?

[@lightgrenade]

Thanks for watching! Yeah, I actually used to do it this way and it works well! However, I found myself needing the global mute button, or accidentally hitting it, and I'd end up re-enabling all of the busses and I'd get lost trying to find where I was. By using archive, I know exactly what tracks have had treatment/been rendered, I can still use the global mute button and it puts FX totally offline - as far as I'm aware, FX still use CPU when respective tracks/busses are muted. I also prefer my aux tracks being right next to my busses for speed. The Console 1 is great, but you need to commit to it, absolutely worth it though. Is there anything you'd like to see? Thanks for the sub, I appreciate it.

[@Broken-Silencer]

@@lightgrenade Cheers, that makes sense. If you're not planning any more Console 1vids, that's fine. It's good seeing a Cakewalk user. CW was my first DAW back in 2012, after using Multi Track recorders for some time. Since then, it's free, which is a no brainer for anyone considering getting into music production.

[@lightgrenade]

@@Broken-Silencer I might do a deep dive on Console 1 and Cakewalk, it really is a good combo. Leave it with me....happy to hear any ideas. And yeah, the current inception of Cakewalk is really solid. I nearly got rid after having a stability nightmare with Sonar X2, but happy I stuck with it. The most stable it's ever been, and plenty of new features.

[@thebarf9235]

Looks like a great system! I have a bit of a noob question though: So, you have your finished bounces archived within Cakewalk itself but what about exporting your favorite bouce to upload to the web and such? Will it be an exact copy of your bounce as long as you export with the same bit depth and sample rate? And you wouldn't apply dithering on export, right? Thanks in advance.

[@lightgrenade]

Hey, thanks! Yeah, it will be an exact copy. I wouldn't get too hung up on dithering to be honest. Only dither when you are reducing the bit depth. If your project is at 24 bit, and you want to export to 16 bit, that's when you would apply dithering. For bouncing down within projects, I don't dither. I keep my export at 24 bit, and send to my mastering engineer who will dither to 16 bit for streaming services. Sample rate also stays the same as the project. Hope that helps!

[@thebarf9235]

@@lightgrenade It helps a lot! Thanks! It clears up the confusion I've been having about dithering. Btw, your song sounds great.

[@lightgrenade]

@@thebarf9235 No worries. Dithering is one of these things some people can get so hung up on, but in practice, I doubt many people can actually hear it. But yeah, standard practice is dither if reducing bit depth. Cheers, I appreciate it. I'll link back here once it's out.

[@thebarf9235]

@@lightgrenade The link to patch points and aux channels is quite helpful, as well. I think these methods are an important step forward for any mixer who wants to take their skillset to the next level. I, for one, will be studying these features and techniques. I'd like to plug the Cakewalk by Bandlab Reference Guide here. It's a couple thousand pages long downloadable pdf that has all the pictures the online help guide is missing. Patch points can be found on page 988. bandlab.github.io/cakewalk/docs/Cakewalk%20Reference%20Guide.pdf

[@lightgrenade]

@@thebarf9235 Yeah definitely. Aux tracks are a gamechanger and much for functional than the standard CW busses. I have just uploaded an example template if you would like a look. Download link in description.

[@clementinelives]

you have any sort of social media i can follow you on? wanna hear more of this music

[@lightgrenade]

Thanks! this one will be released soon and I'll be back with a link.

[@cianbrady1557]

Nice vid👍

[@lightgrenade]

Cheers!

[@abc456f]

I have a feeling you're a big U2 fan judging by your music.