Mixing out stems that involve busses?

[jono grant]

Hello!

I wonder if this problem has ever been figured out by anyone:

- You have a Cakewalk session with many tracks, each track has plug ins, many of the tracks may be sending to a buss or even to a buss and then to a buss that also contain plugins, automation etc.

 

The only way I have found to make accurate stems of each track that include everything, is to solo and select each track by hand and export them one at a time.

Is there still no way to do this in one shot? If a human can do it, I would think the software could do it automatically.

*I know you can set attributes in the export window like choosing buses to mix out etc. I simply want each track to mix out automatically, following the path of how it's setup in cakewalk. In other words, have the computer do what I am doing; selecting each track and exporting a "what you hear" final mix-down of each track, with all the bells and whistles from the track and from the buses.

Anyone??

Thanks!

Jono

[RBH]

I just copied this from another active thread - maybe this will help your workflow ? At least with a convenience of track selection. Sorry not sure how to point to another thread.

 

Yes, ALT+click on the bus number will select the tracks sending to it.

Sends have a pre/post fader switch. The output is post fader. Functionally a post fader send is the same as routing the output to a bus. Pre-fader sends are useful for sidechains.

Sending tracks to another track using a patch point or an aux track can serve the same function as a bus except the it is located in the track area. Some like to see "buses" next to the tracks. Some prefer the have buses in the bus area.

Edited January 18, 2019 by RBH

[jono grant]

RBH, thanks! That's an interesting thing for sure...

What I'm trying to do though, is:

Select all, then go to export and have it export the tracks separately but include anything that the track is going through, plugs, busses etc.

In the export window under "source category" you get:

- tracks

- busses

- main outs

- entire mix

You also get a "preset" drop down with various choices like "what you hear" and "busses" etc. but none of them do sep tracks with bus processing and automation.

What I'm saying is to be able to select all tracks and go to export window and choose: "Tracks", in the source category

But then have a preset called: "track through bus/what you hear" (or something like that) where it mixes out the track with the full mixing path etc.

 

Basically, creating stems that include track contents and bus contents.

*You can only create simple one click stems if you aren't using buses, basically.

Not sure if anyone has found a way to do this...

J

 

 

[Xoo]

Thing is, that wouldn't necessarily give you the audio you want: consider the case when multiple tracks feed a bus with a compressor on.

[John]

To me the definition of stem is a group of audio tracks. This has always meant to me a bus was involved. If on the other hand one wants to copy all the tracks as independent  tracks the way I do it is select all tracks and don't mixdown. I export them.  I also use broadcast wave files as the files output. This with ensure everything lines up in another DAW.

[Noel Borthwick]

Here is the thing. By exporting the audio output of a track AND all its routing through buses downstream its not sonically equivalent to stems.

IOW if you export the tracks one by one this way and import the results into a new project its NOT the same as mixing all the tracks together. This is because when you have downstream plugins from the track the net effect of having multiple tracks mixed is very different since the processing will be different.

This is why there is no macro to automate what you are doing. There is however a way to export a mixdown for each track, which captures the OUTPUT of each track. To do that choose source category "tracks" in the export options.

[Noel Borthwick]

3 hours ago, Kevin Perry said:

Thing is, that wouldn't necessarily give you the audio you want: consider the case when multiple tracks feed a bus with a compressor on.

Exactly.