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How To Export Files In Cakewalk | Tutorial | Video, Trackout, Wav and MP3


Xel Ohh

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This is a very good subject for tutorials, because in my opinion, it's a needlessly obscure process. Good on ya for showing the step of selecting all the tracks that you wanted in your mixdown, because that step is hard to pick up on.

It's not spelled out very well in the official documentation. These are the steps given:

Quote

To export audio to Wave file format
1. Set all volume, pan, effects, and automation settings just as you want them.
2. If you only want to mix down parts of tracks, select those clips now. If you don’t select anything, everything is selected.
3. If you are using effects on the tracks and want to mix the effects down at this time, select the whole length of the longest track or
clip plus extra time for the reverb or effects “tail.”
4. Choose File > Export > Audio to open the Export Audio dialog box.
5. Select a destination folder using the Look In field.
6. Enter a file name.
7. Choose one of the following from the Files of type drop-down list:
 Wave. Choose this if you want to export a standard wave file, or if you’re exporting a surround project in wave format.
 Broadcast Wave (time-stamped). Choose this if you want to create a Broadcast Wave file (see Broadcast Wave).
8. In the Source Category field, select one of the following options:
 Tracks. Choosing this option creates a separate file for each track that you select in the Source Buses/Tracks field.
 Buses. Choosing this option creates a separate file for each bus that you select in the Source Buses/Tracks field.
 Hardware Outputs. Choosing this option creates a separate file for each hardware output that you select in the Source
Buses/Tracks field.
 Entire Mix. Choosing this option creates one file for your entire mix, unless you’re exporting a surround mix with Split Mono
selected in the Channel Format field.
 Mix Recall. Choosing this option bounces each selected Mix Scene to a separate file.
 Arrangements. Choosing this option bounces each selected arrangement to a separate file.
9. In the Source Buses/Tracks field, choose the buses or tracks you want to use as a source to create your mix. If you chose
Tracks in the Source Category field, only tracks will show up as choices in this field.....

The rest describes the format choices.

Notice anything missing?

That would be the critical step where you must select all the tracks you want to have in your mix.? So if someone follows this set of instructions to the letter, and has, say 3 of their 6 tracks selected from an earlier operation....they won't get a complete mix.

Step 2 is misleading. The program will complain if you don't select anything and then try to Export. But it's talking about selecting horizontally, along the timeline, and it means that if you don't make a selection in the ruler, Cakewalk will export from the beginning until what it considers end of project. Not "everything" in the sense of "all the audio in my project," but everything in the sense of the full length of the project.

I was used to controlling which tracks showed up in my mix by using the Mute buttons, so this having to select them as well came as a surprise.

I managed to figure it all out, but it took me a while, and I also got a couple of odd-sounding mixdowns due to selecting Entire Mix and not realizing that it was coming off of all active hardware outputs, of which my interface has 4 pairs, and I was using one of the others for a headphone cue mix. So some of them were phasing, interfering. I was getting my main mix and my cue mix on top of each other if I forgot to mute it. I caught it right away, but if I were new to this, it could have gone worse.

What I do now is make a dedicated bus called "Mix" that has no FX on it, just a loudness meter, and my Master bus goes to it, and Mix goes to whatever hardware out I want to monitor from. I take my mixes from that bus, not the hardware outs. And instead of my Master bus controlling level to the hardware out, I can leave the Master fader alone for automation, and use the Mix fader for controlling level to the hardware out.

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Starship Krupa thanks for the feed back. I know most people are visual beings that why people gravitate to youtube to see how its done... This is just my method of exporting Im pretty sure other people have other ways for doing this its all about preference. Im just trying to help where I can with some of the confusion.

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