Mastering: Item or Track Fx?

I've been mastering in Reaper, and running into a bit of a problem. I use item-based fx...usually 3 or 4 per item. Some CD's will have 40 tracks (items), so that could be 120 separate fx. This uses a BOATLOAD of RAM! On my x64 system with 12gig of ram, all is cool. BUT...I need to use a 32 bit system to run Wavelab for CD prep. So, I'm up against the 3gig limit. I'd load up the one audio track with all my plugins, and just use automation/snapshots, but clients like to change their mind and re-order the tracks. That gets messy. Any suggestions? What do other mastering people do?

I typically mix each song down and render a single stereo track for each. Then I load each song in a separate, new reaper project and do all my mastering there. I have fx mostly on only the master track but occasionally an EQ or multi band comp on an individual "song" as needed. This way I get volume and overall "feel" of the songs similar for the entire CD. The project is much easier to manager and load on the system is low.

Yo Big... Thanks for the reply! I don't quite understand. If you load each mix into a separate Reaper project, how do you quickly compare each song?

There are probably common plugins at the end of the chains (e.g. at least the final limiter) which could be used in a single instance on the master track to reduce the load. For the remaining FX, you could use "Apply fx..." on the items to render them, then switching them offline (not bypass, in order to unload them from RAM) on the inactive take.

Sorry Black I worded that poorly. I load all the mixed down songs into the same new project. For me that ends up being 14 to 20 songs/Tracks typically.

Big...I get it now. Thanks. Steindork...that makes sense. I'm using a final limiter on the track, but the various songs can vary a lot, so per-song plugs is a necessity. I'll try various combinations of rendering/disabling etc. to get a workflow that works wih this system. FYI...this is a great example of the benefits of x64! Thanks for all the help!

Hi BlackBart, you could switch all fx offline for selected tracks. In Actions you would have to look for "Track: Set all fx online (offline) for selected tracks" and make shortcuts for them. This way it would be handy to use track fx. Turning fx offline takes them out of memory. This way you could compare a few songs, as much as it's fx would fit into memory. I didn't yet run into memory probs during mastering but into CPU overs. So I use a macro which turns off all fx but the ones on the selected track. Shogger