Large Templates - is it good to disable tracks?

Cubase
#1

If you have a large template, and you disable most of the tracks, (as in, they get greyed out and disabled),
does the template load faster, perform better?

I’m running into an issue with crashing when trying to Q-Link tracks and load several of the same plugin (in this case a Waves plugin).
I’m thinking this problem wouldn’t happen if the template was much smaller and the project less complex. But I don’t know.

OR… what if I simply disable the unused tracks until I want to use them? Does that help de-complexify the project?
(Note, the VSTS are all turned off in the template, of course.)

What’s your experience?

#2

Depends what’s on the tracks. If they’re instrument tracks then definitely disable them for a performance gain. Same goes if they have active plugins.
I disable all unused tracks in my Templates and indeed have a macro that then hides all disabled tracks to clean up the screen.

#3

thanks. how about for project loading times with inactive plugins? I have inserts a-plenty, all turned completely off, but the project loading time is always many, many minutes. I’m wondering if I disable all those tracks, does the project simply load without initializing those disabled tracks’ inserts? That would seem to speed up loading times quite a bit.

#4

In general the less you load of anything the quicker it will be. It’s hard to be more detailed because it is dependent on the specific plugs involved.

But you can easily see what the impact is for your specific situation in a few minutes (not counting load time).

  1. Create and save a new Project called “test” using your biggest & baddest Template.
  2. Select all Tracks and disable them.
  3. Use “Save As…” to save this as “test disabled” and quit Cubase.
  4. Compare the load times for the 2 Projects.
    :wink:
#5

Thanks.
It’s quicker to ask on this forum, frankly.
And it’s always nice to get verification from someone who actually knows what’s going on under the hood.
I’m also wondering what other people’s experiences are with their templates
Do they prefer having VST effects loaded as well as instruments? Do they disable tracks with VST effects, leave instruments tracks enabled?
Current best practices?

#6

My disabled track template is running at over1000 tracks at the moment.

It loads quickly, but the biggest downside is that the template file size can be very large indeed, Kontakt appears to be the biggest culprit, adding significant file size to your template.

#7

Wow, thanks Jon. That’s great news.

Re size, I presume that’s not a deal-breaker? You keep using the same template?
Video projects, I mean, file sizes are just massive.

I wonder why Kontakt add so much. It’s not loading actual samples into the project, right? I would think these files are basically just text-based.

#8

Also, I see that Group and FX tracks can’t be disabled. Hmm…
Jon, I suppose you have only few of these in your template?

#9

they disable tracks with VST effects, leave instruments tracks enabled?
Current best practices
https://expocoded.com/2021-jamb-cbt-expo/

#10

Yes, I have a lot of group and FX tracks. They can’t be disabled but I do disable the inserts on the tracks to save a bit of CPU in the composing process.

The file size isn’t a huge deal breaker, but it can start to mount up once a few back ups have run. My default project file size was running at 600MB at one point, and with backups the folder would get to 4-5 GB easily, without any video or audio files.

Since replacing many Kontakt instances with the SINE and Spitfire players, the project file size has fallen to about 300MB with the same track count. So Kontakt must be saving a lot more data when disabled. Why, I don’t know.

#11

wow, yes that is large. Thanks for the input.