One Quick Way to Cut CPU Usage in Logic Pro X
When it comes to mixing and mastering with several plugins, producers tend to hit a point where they can hear their computer’s fan on high blast and the performance quality takes a dip as the system starts reaching its limit. A lot of plugins that we use, especially Amp Sims, Delays, Reverbs and VSTs tend to take a massive chunk of RAM in order to operate.
One great work around is to print these plugins into your stems, by using the selection-based processing command in Logic Pro X. Usually when stems are modified there are many plugins that are added for texture but are not modified for the rest of the mixing process. Re-amping is usually done at the very beginning for guitars and bass and the tone is then controlled through EQ and compression.
Using Selection-Based Processing
1. Once you open a project and have your stems arranged, highlight the track that you want to perform the selection-based processing. Once selected you can either right click on the track and select selection-based processing or you can use the shortcut ‘Option+Shift+P’. You shall see the following window pop-up.
Note you can also apply selection-based processing to sections of a stem by highlighting it with the Marquee Tool and then opening the selection-based processing tool
2. Under the plugin section you are given two channel strips: A and B. When doing selection-based processing you can only apply one channel strip at a time and the selected channel strip will be highlighted in blue. Under A or B you can left click and select which plugin you want to apply. From there you can set the parameters of each plugin and the flow in the channel strip is identical to using the mixer.
Having two channel strips is very useful as you can use it to do A-B comparisons while using the preview function. To see how the channel strip will affect the stem, left click the speaker icon under preview and it will play back the stem through your selected channel strip.
The Create New Take option will create a new take instead of overwrite the stem and would preserve the original stem.
Add Effect Tail will extend the stem if you have a delay or an extended fade.
You can apply gain staging in 4 ways:
No Change
Loudness Compensation: Tries to match the volume of the original audio
Overload Protection: The signal will be reduced if it exceeds 0 db to prevent clipping but will not alter the signal if lower
Normalize: Max out the signal to the highest level without clipping
Under Channel Strip Setting you can select presets as well as copy and paste channel strip settings.
If you want to save a channel strip you can click on channel strip settings and select save channel strip setting as…
3. When you are ready to apply the channel strip, click the apply button on the bottom
If you need to undo the selection-based processing, select the track again, open the selection-based processing menu and click undo.