I have a song that I'm currently working on.  It's not finished, but I wanted a rough mix to give to the client.  So far we have about 9 audio tracks, one instance of Superior Drummer consisting of about 6 drum tracks, and one bass track using Virtual Instruments bass.

I go to mix down a rough mix...and it takes about 15 minutes.  I have already froze the drum and bass tracks, so why does say..."processing audio files" about 8 times before it mixes the song...?

I could see it, if I had not already froze the soft synths, but doesn't freezing the soft synths supposedly to take care of this?

When mixing audio tracks in Vegas Pro...it takes roughly 15 seconds to mix a complete song.  I realize that Vegas doesn't have any soft synths....but....shouldn't Sonar be just mixing audio IF I have already froze all of the soft synths?

Then on top of that...I changed the level of the bass track....did a remix....and it went through "processing audio" on ALL of those tracks AGAIN.

I must be doing something wrong....it shouldn't take near this long to mix down a simple stereo track...and have to go through all this "processing" each time I try to do a mix.

Any pointers on what I'm doing wrong?

Don't mixdown using all the tracks use your master buss.

John...I've tried just choosing the master bus...but get the message "no audio is present" or something to that affect.

It seems as though if I don't choose tracks, I get this message...even if I choose "what you hear" from the drop down list.

I will experiment with it tomorrow when I get to the studio.  I know that this has got to be something simple...and just the fact that I am doing it wrong.  That's why I wanted to ask here.

Thanks for the quick response...!

By the way.... I am suppose to use "export audio"....correct?

Select the tracks you want to export, ctrl-a will select them all, then export.

Teds_Studio


By the way.... I am suppose to use "export audio"....correct?

Yes.

John...I've tried just choosing the master bus...but get the message "no audio is present" or something to that affect.

It seems as though if I don't choose tracks, I get this message...even if I choose "what you hear" from the drop down list.

I will experiment with it tomorrow when I get to the studio.  I know that this has got to be something simple...and just the fact that I am doing it wrong.  That's why I wanted to ask here.

Thanks for the quick response...!

This is the way I do it all the time. I do make sure that all audio is using my master buss. Don't use a preset. Select the master buss directly in the selection dialog window.

I'll have to try this tomorrow.  I thought I had tried this, (choosing the master bus) but obviously I have not been doing it right.  I knew there must be a simple way to get a mix besides having to wait for all of the soft synths tracks to render out every single time I try to do a mix.

I did notice that after it went through all the "processing audio data" for all those synth tracks...it would finally say "mixing audio".  Then I would have my mix.

Thanks again.

- All tracks output to Master Bus
- Master Bus as the export source

Selecting the tracks is not necessary. If no tracks are selected, all tracks get exported.
Then again, in such a case you must mute the tracks you don't want to export.

I wonder if frozen synth tracks behave differently from bounced ones? Freezing, after all, is a different procedure from bouncing.

I've never experienced this "multiple rendering".

Do you perhaps have any Audiosnap or time stretching of clips engaged in the song? That's the thing that takes so long to render in my experoence. Better to bounce those down to new tracks and archive the raw ones.

Try increasing the BounceBufSizeMsec variable in the ini file. (Prefs-->Audio--->Configuration File)

If it's set at zero it is using your audio card buffer size which may not be the most efficient for export. Try increasing it to 100 but anything up to about 350 may well help.