Still struggling with the learning curve from Pro-Audio to Sonar X1d Producer.  I have most of my tracks done with MIDI driven softsynths and am ready for the final mixdown.  I expected to just do a bounce-mix to a stereo audio track but the only thing I can find in the help file to select all tracks and do a file-export to WAV.  It works but seems to be a very non-intuitive way to finish a mix.  Am I missing something?  Thanks - Bill

First off, you don't need to bounce to a stereo track if you're using all softsynths for your MIDI tracks. However, if you want to, its pretty much the same as in previous versions except the menu location is different. 

Mute the tracks you don't want in the mix
CTRL-A to select all the tracks and clips
Select Tracks-Bounce to Track (This was moved from the Edit menu to the Track View menu)

The rest is identical to previous versions. 

That's the way I do it.  

You can freeze individual synths if you want before exporting, or you could bounce them to another stereo track, but exporting works fine.

John 

Hi Bill,

There a a hundred and one ways of mixing down to your "final" stereo track, and I'm not the best person to advise to be honest. I don't think you are a million miles away though.

I do this:-

Build my project, which will be a combination of MIDI driven soft synths and recorded audio tracks.
I will route some tracks through separate busses, in order to apply various effects.
I will listen, and listen again, and again, tweaking levels, applying EQ and dynamic compression as I think it is needed, if at all.
I'll leave the project alone for a few days, or a week or so.
I'll revisit the project, and listen again. I sometimes find that, after not hearing it for a week that I still need to tweak things.

When, and only when I am absolutely sure, I will export to a stereo wave file. I'll burn it to a CD so that I can listen to it on a few different sources. If I find that I've messed up the bass, or what ever, I'll go back to the project and tweak some more.

As for mastering... I generally do that outside of Sonar. I still like to use Sound Forge for that.

So, that's just my take on things, and as far as I can see, you are not really missing anything. The export function requires that you experiment a bit, and decide on what is best for you. You can export just selected tracks, or buses. I route everything, eventually, to my Master Bus, and it is that bus that I export. If I don't want anything to appear in the mix, I mute, or archive the track.


That's just for starters... an expert will be along soon :^)



(LOL... as per usual, I take so long typing, I'm beaten by two posters this time...)

There are a couple of way to go about it.

You stated that you have Midi driven soft synths.

The easiest is to freeze the soft-synths one at a time, you should note this will freeze the effects and any Pro Channel settings but you can still control level, Pan and sends.

You can then bounce to track which will give you a single track mix of the lot.

The above is my preferred and think is probably how most do it, though I have been wrong so do not take my word.

Or if you want a messy way which requires that all the mixing is done.  Is to go straight for the bounce to tracks.  Results with this are a little unpredictable though.

Once you have a mix you are happy with then export the finished track to whatever format, bit depth etc. you require.

The freeze function is on each track, the bounce function is under track in the Track view and export is under file.

Good luck


Edit: I wrote the above before the others had contributed do with as you wish.

Wookiee

The easiest is to freeze the soft-synths one at a time, you should note this will freeze the effects and any Pro Channel settings but you can still control level, Pan and sends. 

Yep, I should have mentioned that. Exporting a complete project, without freezing the synth tracks first, could push your system a bit. I'm okay at the moment because my system is quite powerful, but in times gone by, I had no option but to freeze synth tracks first

Yes it depends on the computer - if it's reasonably new, running Win 7 64 bit with a fair bit of ram ,you should be able to simply Select All followed by  File > Export.

Thanks everybody for the great replies.  Looks like I have a couple ways to experiment with.  Still don't understand the "Freeze Track" business but I'll spend some more time with the help files.  I think I've got plenty of horsepower: Core I7 (8 engines), 8gb memory, Windows 7 (64) and 750gb harddrive.  I will also be adding some audio tracks using guitar through M-Audio Fast Track and ASIO drivers.  And final mastering with Cool Edit 2000.  Regards - Bill

Freeze is basically like a non-destructive bounce. It simply turns the synth into an audio output, not midi any more. You can't edit any synth settings after that. The primary purpose is to conserve CPU/RAM or as a quick and easy method of bouncing if you're sending stems to someone else. Oh and all plug'ins on the track also turn into audio. You can't add effects to the bounced track after that. So if you have Guitar Rig on a track and want to send the track to someone else, you can bounce it and send them that. But you can copy the bounce track out, and then un-freeze the synth. Eg for doing reverse reverb stuff.

If CPU/RAM is never and issue, you don't need to worry about it. But it has other workflow uses as mentioned above if you wish to utilise. But just a different tool which can be used to reach the same goals.

cwhowell2


Thanks everybody for the great replies.  Looks like I have a couple ways to experiment with.  Still don't understand the "Freeze Track" business but I'll spend some more time with the help files.  I think I've got plenty of horsepower: Core I7 (8 engines), 8gb memory, Windows 7 (64) and 750gb harddrive.  I will also be adding some audio tracks using guitar through M-Audio Fast Track and ASIO drivers.  And final mastering with Cool Edit 2000.  Regards - Bill

Right, in that case there's no need to freeze anything before you export your mix.

The only time I freeze nowadays is when I am 100% convinced that the project is totally finished. Then I'll just freeze any soft synths in the project.

Note: this is totally different to freezing tracks and has a different outcome.