Mixing Down To A Single Stereo Track To Burn To CD

[Norm]

I've scanned the Sonar manual and found only vague explanations about how to Mix all my tracks down to a single stereo track to burn to CD, which is what I believe you are supposed to do. The only method I see for that would be to take all the tracks and via "Bounce to Tracks", turn them into one single stereo track, which would then be burned to CD. Is that the correct method, or is that WAY WRONG? I have all the tracks recorded, automated, panned, EQed etc. and ready to be mixed down, I'm just not sure what the next correct step is. Could someone please enlighten me on best way to do this?

[bigBadWolf]

Several ways you can approach this ....

1) - directly to HDD.

click "SOLO" on each of the tracks which contain the audio clips for mixdown - ensuring those NOT intended for mixdown are NOT included.

select all audio clips intended for mixdown within those chanenels selected above.

then, FILE/EXPORT AUDIO . Here you will be asked for a file name ( .wav ). The default format is 16 bit 44.1k stereo but you can change this if required.

2) bounce to clip

use same SOLO and clip selection procedure as above. you will now be asked to nominate the destination channel for the mixdown.

before saving this new clip, unsolo everything and then SOLO then new mixdown channel only and select the mixed-down clip. then FILE/EXPORT AUDIO, as above.


Both will result in the same quality sound and both will take into account all your EFX and panning settings.

I prefer method 2 since it allows opportunity to trim, head and tail the clip and fade in/out from/to silence prior to saving to HDD

hope that helps http://www.audioforums.com/forums/smile.gif

[gascap]

Also be mindful that you can export highlighted tracks as individual wav's. Tthere's a box to check/uncheck at the bottom which allows for one 'mixed' file to be exported (as opposed to ALL that are highlighted.)

Good luck!

[Lofty]

I would always bounce to a stereo pair so that you can perform final mastering EQ, compression, stereo imaging etc before burning to CD. You might also want to apply different EQ to the final master stereo tracks for different uses (e.g. internet streaming).

[Norm]

So Lofty, you're saying that I bounce all my tracks to a single stereo track within the song. Let's say track #30 or so. Then I somehow rename and copy that one stereo track and move it to something like T-rax or some mastering program? Master it, then burn it to a cd? Is this the proper procedure? Thanks!

[Lofty]

Yes.....select the tracks you want to bounce and select Bounce to Tracks, Mix to Single Track Stereo, which enables you to select whether FX and Track automation etc. get taken into account in the bounce.

Select your stereo track and use the Export Audio option to output a wave file which you can then import into your mastering program. in this way, you still have an unmastered Sonar file which you can return to if the mastering goes wrong.

If you have recorded in 24 bit, you will need to dither down to 16-bit for CD. You can either do this in Sonar before you export your wave file, or use the mastering software (if it has this capability).

That's the way I do it..........

[Duck King]

Export: Mix all selected tracks, give file name on save.
Bounce to clips: This combines edits on a track in one file one that track. You can select all and bounce everything at once to get one fiel per track. Leaves blank space at the beginning of track however.
Bounce to tracks: this mixes selected tracks to another track. I create a new track, name it what my mix will be like acoustics, bv, etc. Then I select the Clips I want to mix, and bounce them.
I generally use export to mix a track for final mastering, mp3, etc.

[This message has been edited by Duck King (edited 07-09-2002).]

[mixsit]

I'm new to mixing in sonar so maybe I'm just not understanding the terminology, but shouldn't we want to capture the main stereo two track mix buss as the new master stereo track? Seems like just combining tracks would miss effects on the aux busses for example.
wayne