Understanding Export (Entire Mix)

[Starship Krupa]

Since IMO, the "Entire Mix" option isn't spelled out enough in the documentation, I'm posting this description from one of the Cakewalk developers.

What it boils down to is that if you are using more than one hardware out, for instance a headphone mix using sends, Entire Mix is not the best option.

Quote

 

Entire mix does is this:

1. creates a new internal summing bus
2. routes the  output of all hardware mains to the new summing bus. 
3. Renders the project and captures the output of the summing bus to the target file format 

Its important to note here that if your project has multiple paths outputting to more than one stereo pair of outputs, whether it be via tracks directly assigned to hardware mains (some people do this) or individual buses assigned to different hardware mains (eg a headphone mix), this process will capture a summed mix of all outputs.

The only cases where rendering entire mix is logical is 

1. You have a single stereo out
2. You have multiple outputs in use but the audio is not duplicated, such as when  you are sending drums to one stereo pair, guitars to another pair etc.

e.g If you have multiple cue mixes going to different stereo outs from the main mix bus, they will all get summed into the final output, which is almost surely not what you want.

So basically when using Entire mix, its up to the user to figure out what's really intended. The safest is to create a dedicated mix bus and export that explicitly. 

 

To expand, it's not an issue for people using interfaces that have only one stereo output, but for people like me, whose main interface has 5 stereo (10 mono) outputs. I use multiple outputs for things like referencing on different sets of speakers and cue mixes. In my projects, I have a dedicated bus where I can switch to whatever output I want. Instead of a hardware speaker switch, I use that bus.

It works great, but if I were to export using "Entire Mix," Sonar would sum all of those outputs, whether my bus was switched to them or not.

There are multiple ways to manage it. Of course there are, this is Sonar.

My solution is to have a dedicated Export bus. All of my project templates include one. My Master bus routes to it rather than directly to a hardware out. It routes to the hardware out that feeds my main monitors. At export time, I choose to export only from this bus. That way I know that what I get in the export is what I'm hearing in the monitors.

There are no FX on my Export bus except for a loudness meter. It's a great place to put it.

Another solution is to mute any audio that's being routed to a hardware out. I don't do it this way because I might forget to mute it.

I hope this clarifies what "Entire Mix" means and when you might not want to use it.

 

[Jim Fogle]

Very nice explanation.  Thanks for taking the time and effort to share 

[Xoo]

Even with one physical out in use, Entire Mix might not work.

For example, I have just headphone output enabled, but between my "master" bus and the headphones, I have another bus which has a headphone EQer on (Blue Cat Re-Head in my case) and a volume drop so that I don't have to keep fiddling with my physical headphone volume knob.

Neither of these I want to apply to my exports, so I always use the "Master Bus" as the source.