I have 10 wave tracks I would like to mix down to a single stereo MP3/wave file, how do I best do that? If I try to merge the tracks, I get a message that I don't have the codecs???

RB 2018 on HD

If you are trying to merge to mp3, it could be that there are no codecs on your computer. PG Music does not supply these codecs (I'm not sure if that's changed recently, but it was certainly the case last year.)

I don't have an mp3 codec installed at the moment so I didn't try the 'merge to compressed file' option.

When I clicked on "Render | Merge audio and VST/DXi to stereo WAV file" (i.e. an uncompressed format) everything worked well.

Have you installed the latest update (namely, build 5)? If not you can get it from the link below.

http://www.pgmusic.com/support.realband.htm

Regards,
Noel

You would load the waves into a DAW such as Real Band or Sonar, and do the production stuff such as EQ, compression, volume envelopes, etc.... Then you export the mix to do the mix down. Since it's telling you that the codecs are missing..... not surprising, since most of the DAWs are not MP3 converters. You have to get some sort of MP3 converter and install it. Some are free and some are not.

My suggestion is to mix down to a WAVE file. Then.... export it and use an external wave editor such as WavePad by NCH to edit it and then convert it to MP3. No need to by the converter or hassle with installing it properly.

Try downloading the LAME ACM (you can Google it). The ACM (not the actual LAME.EXE or LAME.DLL utility) installs into the Windows registry and you should carefully read the installation instructions that comes with it for 64-bit machines.

Once you install it, you should be able to render to MP3.

There is also a way to unlock the original Fraunhofer CODEC on your computer. Since it is no longer under patent, you can freely use it. PM me and I can send you the instructions (which requires a registry hack).