Mix down monitoring?

Hi folks,
 
I'm new to DAW.  I just bought Cakewalk Studio last week.  I have an old Fostex 4 Track that I haven't used in 15 years.  After I upload the tracks from the Fostex to my DAW, is it possible to mix the 4 tracks down to one track while monitoring the mixdown?  i.e. mute/umute pieces, change volume levels, etc. as the track is being mixed?  I ask b/c I haven't seen any documentation on this?  That's how I used to do it w/the Fostex.  Am I just missing the boat here?

Thanks AT
 
I guess my question is: when I have the tracks uploaded, and i output all of the tracks to the master, where do I hit record on the master track?  There's no icon for it?  I tried outputting all of the tracks to a separate bus, but there was no record icon on the bus track?  What I'd like to do is mix down and manually change parameters of the tracks.
 
Signed,
Clueless

Each track has buttons labled "R" and "W" for Read and Write.  These the the automation buttons.
"R" will be active on all chanels by default.  Press "W" on one of the chanels, press "Play" and move the fader/EQ/Pan etc, for that track.  The movements are stored and can be edited or overwritten.

When you've set automation for all the tracks as desired and the playback sounds just the way you want it,  use File -> Export -> Audio and you magically get a mixed down audio file

Ahh, that makes sense.  I was wondering about the W and R.  So it does need to be setup before you export (mix).  Thanks Karyn 
 
 

LOT


Ahh, that makes sense.  I was wondering about the W and R.  So it does need to be setup before you export (mix).  Thanks Karyn 
 
 

Yes. This is called mixing and you should aim to get your mix as perfect as you can before you Export


Just play it through, automating levels/sends on the fly, then you can edit them after the fact if you came in a bit too late with one move, or you moved it too high/low etc.


You'll see all of your fader moves in Track view - they show up as ENVELOPES which can be edited freely.


Make sure you set your Write automation button to OFF once you've done recording moves.

LOT,

yea, it is differnet than in the old days.  When you get your tracks imported you set the balance (well, not if you are doing mono), levels, eq etc. just like analog.  Then you can automate them.  When you get the mix sounding right, you do an export and the exported file should sound exactly like the mix, only on a stereo(or mono) track.

Probably the best thing to do (or what I do) is export your file at exactly the same bit depth and sample rate as your project.  Import it in on another track, mute it  and save the project.  That way you have a "master" saved w/ your project and (hopefully) wont' lose it.  Use a copy of that master to downsample to CD or mp3.

You could use your tascam to record out your mix too for a real time master just like in the analog days, but you would be doing another DA/AD pass unless you have digital ins/outs.  It is probably better to just bounce w/in the computer.

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