To easily share Sets between two different computers, both computers must have the same plug-ins installed (or rather, all of the plug-ins used in the Set being shared). When the necessary plug-ins aren’t available on both machines, the common workaround is to use Track Freeze. First, a bit about freezing tracks, then we’ll talk about […]
COLLABORATING: EDIT FROZEN MIDI
So, what do you do when you’re faced with a frozen track but you want to do some sort of editing that’s not allowed? In that case, you have to get a little creative… Let’s look at the example of MIDI editing. Since you can’t edit the MIDI in a frozen track, the first thing […]
COLLABORATING: EDIT FROZEN AUDIO
When working with frozen audio tracks, there are some important things you can’t do, such as messing with Warp markers and adding new effects. Typically, the Flatten command is used to turn a frozen track into a standard audio track. When a track is flattened, the original track is thrown away and replaced with a […]
COLLABORATING: ANTI-FREEZE
While Freeze is a pretty great technology, expecting that it will solve all of your collaboration woes will lead to disappointment. My experience is that as Sets get large and complex, it gets easy to accidentally miss a track that needs to be frozen before you hand it off. A few thoughts to help improve […]
COLLABORATING: THE COMMITMENT ESCAPE HATCH
Some of this stuff about workflow and committing to ideas really isn’t limited to collaboration… it applies just as much when you’re working on your own. But here we are. So… Sometimes you want to commit to an idea by freezing and flattening, but you still want to leave yourself the option of going back […]
COLLABORATING: ABLETON INSTRUMENT AGGRO
If you have the Live Suite, or any of Ableton’s add-on instruments (or the Corpus effect), you have to be extra careful if you’re transferring a Set to a user that doesn’t have the same instruments. The issue is this: any set containing unauthorized instruments will be opened by Live in Demo mode – which […]
THE SIDECHAIN FREEZE
Special thanks to Francis Preve for suggesting this tip many months ago…if you’re not familiar with Francis, make sure to check him out. He makes great music and is a terrific educator – he’s the author of the Remixer’s Bible and countless articles for Keyboard magazine. If you’ve ever tried to freeze a track that […]
THE SIDECHAIN FREEZE, pt. 2
Once you’ve frozen a track that requires a sidechained effect, you’re faced with a decision. Do you need to keep the track frozen, or can it be flattened? If you’re prepared to flatten the track, it’s very simple. Flatten the track, then drag the sidechain device from the track you temporarily parked it in back […]
THE SIDECHAIN FREEZE: STUCK IN THE MIDDLE
The prior tips for freezing a track containing a sidechain device assume that you’re fine with the device being at the very end of the effect chain. For example, what if you’ve got a sidechained Compressor sitting before EQ and distortion? If you move the compressor out of the track, then add it back after […]
THE SIDECHAIN FREEZE: THE CATCH
When you render\export a track with a sidechain effect, you need to bear in mind that it becomes possible for the rendered effect to become out of sync with the sidechain source. That’s the problem with rendering sidechain effects, and the very problem that was mentioned in the first tip on this topic. Therefore, when […]
