Hi folks,
I'm working on some VO cues and I'm running into a bit of difficulty. I have a bunch of VO cues that I need to send to the post guys as individual wav files so they can insert them into various points into the production video. Each cue is on a different track in Sonar, and every one of those tracks goes to a bus with some very light EQ, compression and reverb. What I'd like to do is export each track as a separate file but still have the bus effects applied to each one of them.

So far I've tried to export with my source set to "tracks" and made sure the Bus fx was ticked in the export options but it doesn't apply the fx. I've also tried bouncing to new tracks within Sonar but I get the same problem...with source set to "tracks" the bus fx are not printed.

I know I can copy the fx to each track, but with a bunch of tracks that can get impractical and seems very time consuming, even with fx chaining.

Aside from soloing each track and exporting them one-by-one, does anyone have any good ideas on how to do that? Alternately, if you're a VO guy, is there some other way to set up your session to make this easier?

Thanks
Dean

Polite bump.

Dean

Razorwit


So far I've tried to export with my source set to "tracks" and made sure the Bus fx was ticked in the export options but it doesn't apply the fx. I've also tried bouncing to new tracks within Sonar but I get the same problem...with source set to "tracks" the bus fx are not printed.

You stated you've tried to "export".  This shoud work.  However IF you meant to say "bounce"  I am not certain you can bounce a Buss FX into a track. 
 
Unfortunately, short of solo-ing as you mentioned, I am not certain what you are trying to acheive is possible. 
 
I hope someone else here has a solution!

Hi Psalmist35,
Yeah, even export doesn't work as long as my sources are tracks. Export and bounce appear to do the same thing, just to different destinations...export sends files to a destination on the disk, bounce sends files to new tracks in the project. Each one bypasses bus fx when the source is set to tracks.

Thanks for the response
Dean

Can you drag the VO clips so that they are sequencal?? instead of in unison then export using the Bus as the source? After they're processed just chop them up into individual wav files?

Hi tKx5050,
Yep, that's a good idea and actually how I solved the problem in this instance, but it's not terribly ideal. After all, the reason I had the cues on separate tracks in the first place is to differentiate them.

I'm thinking there probably isn't a good way to do this with export or bouncing and now I'm kinda wondering if the VO guys set up projects in a particular way to work around this...

Dean

Dean,
Are you using X2. I have X2 and just haven't made time to get familiar with it.
 
Anyway, I you do have it, is it practicle to create an FX chain in X2  for the FX you are using (asuming they are the same since you're using Buss FX)open  that chain for each clip that you have then bounce that clip to get the desire results?  Just a thought.
 
Rich

Hi Psalmist,
Thanks for the response. Yep, I'm using X2 and I thought about making fx chains. Problem is, if each chain has, say, three fx in it (EQ, comp and 'verb), applying that across 80 or more cues can build up pretty quickly in terms of processor usage. That's why I was hoping to be able to use bus fx. Beyond that, if I wanted to change the fx I'd then have to copy that fx chain back over each and every track, which is not particularly appealing.

Thanks for the suggestion...still hoping to find a good solution.

Dean

Hi Dean,

I'm assuming you want to bounce/render in one process (saving time/energy).
If that's the case, what about laying each VO section (take) as a clip in a single track (as you've done).
Then, in a second track, add a very short transient to mark the start of each VO segment (you should be able to snap to the start of each clip).  The production engineer could then use these as markers to cut each segment.
This assumes that none of the VO takes start immediately (have some space before/after).

We cut VOs here for my girlfriend (works for the local classic-rock station)... and typically we'll provide 2-4 takes of a typical 30 or 60 second spot.  The production engineer will slice/dice if needed.  Once in a while, they'll want to edit a script (for time)... and in that case, we'll re-cut the VO.