How Can I export Audio track without inheriting maximum track length?

I've been working with several audio tracks, each track being a different length, and the maximum length of track 11 is 5:03.
When I export track 1, the clip is only 3:17, but it writes to disk as 5:03 long, and pads the end with silence.
 
How can I export the 3:17 track so that it's really 3:17 in length, not the maximum?
 
THank you in advance - I"d really appreciate understanding what's happening!
 
Corey

If you drag a clip to the desktop or a folder it will reflect the clip length as shown. However, I exported a clip, slip-edited it, and exported it. The exported version was the correct length.
 
How you export matters. If you export MULTIPLE tracks and have selected Tracks as the Source category, they will all last as long as the longest track. If you have a selection that's longer than the track, Sonar will export the length of the selection and pad the rest of the track that extends past a clip with silence.
 
Sonar has very powerful export options but with that power comes a learning curve.

Thank you all so much. I had to ask because I performed "Apply trimming" and it didn't help. The track in question is Track 3, and it was selected as the only one (in other words, not multi select). And yet it still wrote to disk with the max length.
 
One thing I could double-check is that even though I highlighted the track number to select, it may not have
actually highlighted the clip itself - that happens to me at times.
 
Other than that, I'll read the reference manual on exporting, but so far this thread is telling me to know more about
slip-editing, and Edit/Select by Time.
 
I'll see what happens! Again, thanks so very much.

Always specify a time range when exporting a sequence shorter than the full project. Either use Select by Time, a combination of Select From/Thru or in this case just Select Thru. Export time range can also be specified by dragging along the time line  or using markers for selection.

lawajava
Select By Time - it works. Piece of cake.

+1
Edit -> Select -> From = now
Edit -> Select -> Thru = now
I use it on every bounce, even on bounce to tracks. Just make sure Thru includes reverb tails or your longest release time.

My method is to place two markers labeled "Start" and "End" at the points on the timeline where I want the export to begin and end. These can be adjusted later if necessary if I hear reverb tails getting chopped off, or there is excessive silence at either end, or a count-in remnant is still audible.
 
When I export, I first press CTL-A to select all tracks, then jump to the Start marker, make that the beginning of the selection, and then jump to the End marker and make that the end of the selection. I do all this with a sequence of keystrokes that have become second-nature after many thousands of repetitions. With a programmable keyboard you could do it all with a single keystroke.
 
(I don't like making timeline selections by dragging because it's imprecise - unless grid snap is turned on, but I don't use grid snap.)
 
This method guarantees that every export will be exactly the same length, will never need to be re-verified before the next step, and that any subsequent MP3 will always be the same size, too.

bitflipper

All else is in doubt, so this is the truth I cling to. 

What's this?  
I see Sin X over X!  What however is the message? Am I the only one who "Don't Get It no gud"?
 

cpkoch

bitflipper

All else is in doubt, so this is the truth I cling to. 

What's this?  
I see Sin X over X!  What however is the message? Am I the only one who "Don't Get It no gud"?
 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nyquist%E2%80%93Shannon_sampling_theorem
 
I adopted the sig during a contentious online discussion in which a couple posters claimed the Nyquist theorem was wrong. Almost every other aspect of audio is open to debate and subject to opinion. But not this one.

Unless my computer clock is playing tricks, its been 4 years since the OP asked this question.  I assume he either found the answer or quit recording audio.