Are subprojects better than freezing?
I've been learning about subprojects lately. They seem incredibly powerful.
One of the main things that struck me was how you can use them to get around CPU issues. Like in my case, I set up all my mixes using stem folders. So I have all the drums and percussion in a folder, keys and guitars in another, vocals in another, etc. But I just realized that I could be using subprojects instead of folders for the stems.
If I had separate subprojects for each stem, then my total CPU power could be applied to each stem rather than divided between them. Right now, I end up having to freeze tracks at some point in the mix due to maxing out the CPU. How far along I can get before freezing depends on how many tracks there are, but it's typically inevitable.
I'm not a huge fan of freezing in Reaper, I mean it works but it's a bit clunky. If I used subprojects instead, I doubt I'd have to freeze at all. One of the main downsides I see with using subprojects for stems in a regular song mix is that you'd have to tab through the subprojects to compare tracks in different stem groups, which is not as easy as scrolling through the mixer. But that still seems better than freezing, because you can't even see what FX are frozen on each track, and you can't unfreeze specific FX (as far as I have found). It's an all or nothing thing. So that's time-consuming anyway. Plus, there are actions for switching between project tabs which I could map to hotkeys (or more likely, my mouse).
Anyone else using subprojects in this way? I'm still learning about how they work, so I might be overlooking some pitfall that makes this not as great as I'm imagining at the moment.
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