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 common problems with this technique.
The concept is simple: when you Freeze a track, its output is temporarily rendered to an audio file, so none of its instrument or effect devices are necessary. As a result, you lose much of the ability to edit clips on a frozen track. For example, if you’ve frozen a MIDI track you can’t edit the MIDI itself, but you can still chop up and move around the clips in the Arrangement view.
In many situations, this is a very elegant way to share sets between computers. Freeze every track that uses a third-party plug-in before transferring it to the other machine. (Make sure you’re transferring the entire project, not just the Set!) When opened on the other computer, there will be one or more warnings that pop up to warn you that certain plug-ins can’t be found. Don’t worry about these. The frozen tracks will work just fine as long as the user on that computer doesn’t need to edit MIDI, plug-in parameters or anything else that is truly frozen.
On the machine that has all of the plug-ins available, you’re free to edit to your heart’s content. Just Unfreeze the track first.
