My BB is the Windows version. I use BB to enter the chords of a song into the chord sheet, so I can play back the chords to accompany my sax playing. It is the simplest possible setup.
I have not used Audio, because I don't know how it functions vis-à-vis my setup. Recently I've begun to suspect that Audio might make a positive difference somehow, but before I decide to add Audio to all my songs, I would appreciate any info or advice regarding this.
I won't pretend to understand all of it (to put it mildly), but it certainly helps me to have the relevant Audio settings.
I would very much like to hear your opinion as to whether or not it might improve my songs to add Audio to my settings, in view of how I described my use of BB?
In BB, under the Audio menu, there is an option saying “Render song to audio track (and mute tracks).” Why would one do that? What is gained by doing that?
I can see what happens in the Chord Sheet mixer: the Audio track slider is activated, and the other tracks become inactive, though this doesn’t seem to affect the music (?)
So, other than making it possible to control the volume in one place (the “Master”), instead of having to adjust each track separately, what is the purpose of “rendering the song to audio track”?
I know I’m missing something important, and I’m sorry for being so ignorant. If you could enlighten me a little I would really appreciate it.
In BB, under the Audio menu, there is an option saying “Render song to audio track (and mute tracks).” Why would one do that? What is gained by doing that?
My understanding is that it simply creates an Audio Wav file of the BaiB performance that could be used separately without requiring the use of the BiaB program.
If I follow your requirement correctly, this video may assist:
BIAB & RB2026 Win.(Audiophile), Windows 10 Pro & Windows 11, Cakewalk Bandlab, Izotope Prod.Bundle, Roland RD-1000, Synthogy Ivory, Session Keys Grand S & Electric R, Kontakt, Focusrite 18i20, KetronSD2, NS40M, Pioneer Active Monitors.
In BB, under the Audio menu, there is an option saying “Render song to audio track (and mute tracks).” Why would one do that? What is gained by doing that?
Good question. I export audio all the time and never knew that option existed. Here's what the manual has to say:
Quote:
Render Song to Audio Tracks (and mute tracks): Use this to render all tracks to the Audio track and disable track generation.
Un-Render Song from Audio Tracks (Enables tracks, erase audio track): Use this to erase the rendered Audio track and restore track generation.
So the idea is to change the project into an audio snapshot that will be what you hear when you hit play, because everything else has been frozen and silenced. Note that this does NOT export audio files for use by another application, and prevents further non-audio development unless reversed.
So I also wonder: Why offer this option? I guess somebody asked for it, but why?
My best guess is that this feature is for those who use BIAB in a 2-stage process, (A) generating and perfecting the band tracks then (B) post-processing the audio result without leaving the application. It’s like: OK, time for the DAW, but the DAW is still BIAB, and if you eventually export to audio files that's to save a final playable product.
To the OP: If you can arrange and hear music, you aren’t missing anything. =8^) If you’re looking to export audio for sharing or further processing, that another matter, but it sounds like you aren't, and even if you are it probably won’t involve that particular menu option.
The intention is to combine all of the existing tracks (RealTracks and MIDI tracks) into a WAV file and automatically place it on the Audio Track. This WAV file is then played instead of the data on the other tracks.
Note that while there are other export methods available, the produced WAV file from this action is a physical disk file and can definitely be used by other applications if required.
BIAB & RB2026 Win.(Audiophile), Windows 10 Pro & Windows 11, Cakewalk Bandlab, Izotope Prod.Bundle, Roland RD-1000, Synthogy Ivory, Session Keys Grand S & Electric R, Kontakt, Focusrite 18i20, KetronSD2, NS40M, Pioneer Active Monitors.
Does the Windows operation prompt for a file name? If it does prompt, obviously disregard my previous statement.
I can't test my own statement, as the operation doesn't exist on the Mac in that form, at least it isn't labelled that or explained that way. Here's what it does have, with the manual note:
Quote:
Render Song to Audio File (WAV,AIFF,M4A) opens the “Render to Audio File” dialog which lets you convert the song to an audio file.
The operation automatically creates a WAV file with the same name as the song file (but a .WAV extension). It also produces this message, and of course, places the WAV file on the Audio Track:
Last edited by AudioTrack; 04/11/2211:55 AM. Reason: Added Mixer screen capture
BIAB & RB2026 Win.(Audiophile), Windows 10 Pro & Windows 11, Cakewalk Bandlab, Izotope Prod.Bundle, Roland RD-1000, Synthogy Ivory, Session Keys Grand S & Electric R, Kontakt, Focusrite 18i20, KetronSD2, NS40M, Pioneer Active Monitors.
Copy that, it appears I was wrong about the export.
But then what does the "un-render" operation do, does it actually delete that file?
Yes. It asks for confirmation, then removes it from the Audio Track and deletes the .WAV file from disk. (It also changes some naming conventions in the mixer, not sure why this is.)
BIAB & RB2026 Win.(Audiophile), Windows 10 Pro & Windows 11, Cakewalk Bandlab, Izotope Prod.Bundle, Roland RD-1000, Synthogy Ivory, Session Keys Grand S & Electric R, Kontakt, Focusrite 18i20, KetronSD2, NS40M, Pioneer Active Monitors.
For comparison, these are the original Track ID's before any export/un-render etc is performed:
BIAB & RB2026 Win.(Audiophile), Windows 10 Pro & Windows 11, Cakewalk Bandlab, Izotope Prod.Bundle, Roland RD-1000, Synthogy Ivory, Session Keys Grand S & Electric R, Kontakt, Focusrite 18i20, KetronSD2, NS40M, Pioneer Active Monitors.
Yes, for a long time now we have all been wanting to see identical functionality on both platforms. It's getting much closer, so that's a good thing.
BIAB & RB2026 Win.(Audiophile), Windows 10 Pro & Windows 11, Cakewalk Bandlab, Izotope Prod.Bundle, Roland RD-1000, Synthogy Ivory, Session Keys Grand S & Electric R, Kontakt, Focusrite 18i20, KetronSD2, NS40M, Pioneer Active Monitors.
There's a "gotcha" here, because within BiaB, that audio file will now play at the same time as the song tracks, causing some confusion. In practice it's probably better to render to some other location and/or name.
Jazz relative beginner, starting at a much older age than was helpful. AVL:MXE Linux; Windows 11 BIAB2026 Audiophile, a bunch of other software. Kawai MP6, Ui24R, Focusrite Saffire Pro40 and Scarletts .
There's a "gotcha" here, because within BiaB, that audio file will now play at the same time as the song tracks, causing some confusion. In practice it's probably better to render to some other location and/or name.
Yes, good point, and I agree. However, the documentation states:
Quote:
You can Render Song to Audio Track, which mutes the individual tracks and plays the rendered audio wave, or you can UnRender Song from Audio Track, which will erase the audio track and play the individual tracks again.
Now despite the statement about muting, the jury is still out on whether it mutes the individual tracks. It's supposed to, but from my tests, I'm not so sure...
BIAB & RB2026 Win.(Audiophile), Windows 10 Pro & Windows 11, Cakewalk Bandlab, Izotope Prod.Bundle, Roland RD-1000, Synthogy Ivory, Session Keys Grand S & Electric R, Kontakt, Focusrite 18i20, KetronSD2, NS40M, Pioneer Active Monitors.
OK, more tests. These three images show the mixer information before the render, after the render and after the 'un-render'. I don't know why the drums changed from RealDrums to MIDI drums. More tests to follow...
BIAB & RB2026 Win.(Audiophile), Windows 10 Pro & Windows 11, Cakewalk Bandlab, Izotope Prod.Bundle, Roland RD-1000, Synthogy Ivory, Session Keys Grand S & Electric R, Kontakt, Focusrite 18i20, KetronSD2, NS40M, Pioneer Active Monitors.
OK, I'm back. Here's the interesting bit. Despite the mention of muting, nothing actually shows that the tracks have been muted in the mixer (see previous post). However, further testing I found that if any tracks were frozen before the render to audio was selected, they are not muted and also show as playing in the mixer, as can be seen in the screen capture...
So I don't think this works in the way it is described in the documentation.
I'll report it.
BIAB & RB2026 Win.(Audiophile), Windows 10 Pro & Windows 11, Cakewalk Bandlab, Izotope Prod.Bundle, Roland RD-1000, Synthogy Ivory, Session Keys Grand S & Electric R, Kontakt, Focusrite 18i20, KetronSD2, NS40M, Pioneer Active Monitors.
So I don't think this works in the way it is described in the documentation.
I'll report it.
I think it's behaved like this for quite a while. I'm one of a number of people who have rendered a file, then found that I still had the old version after a regenerate. Henry Clarke mention it in one of his BiaB videos, advising first to create a subfolder for the audio.
The other related gotcha, now I think about it, is that the mixer may also have the audio track hidden.
Jazz relative beginner, starting at a much older age than was helpful. AVL:MXE Linux; Windows 11 BIAB2026 Audiophile, a bunch of other software. Kawai MP6, Ui24R, Focusrite Saffire Pro40 and Scarletts .
This discussion has been very informative and helpful! Audio definitely has functions that I can use, so I'll use Audio from now on, at least from time to time.
This discussion has been very informative and helpful! Audio definitely has functions that I can use, so I'll use Audio from now on, at least from time to time.
So, thank you all!
/Bent
Thanks for marking it as 'Resolved' and I hope it is the correct successful solution for you.
BIAB & RB2026 Win.(Audiophile), Windows 10 Pro & Windows 11, Cakewalk Bandlab, Izotope Prod.Bundle, Roland RD-1000, Synthogy Ivory, Session Keys Grand S & Electric R, Kontakt, Focusrite 18i20, KetronSD2, NS40M, Pioneer Active Monitors.
In BB, under the Audio menu, there is an option saying “Render song to audio track (and mute tracks).” Why would one do that? What is gained by doing that?
This a very old feature that was used before the freezing tracks was possible.
Thanks Blake for stepping in. That explains a lot about the function and moreover, the reason that it was implemented.
For info: I don't believe that it actually mutes the adjacent tracks though.
BIAB & RB2026 Win.(Audiophile), Windows 10 Pro & Windows 11, Cakewalk Bandlab, Izotope Prod.Bundle, Roland RD-1000, Synthogy Ivory, Session Keys Grand S & Electric R, Kontakt, Focusrite 18i20, KetronSD2, NS40M, Pioneer Active Monitors.
In BB, under the Audio menu, there is an option saying “Render song to audio track (and mute tracks).” Why would one do that? What is gained by doing that?
This a very old feature that was used before the freezing tracks was possible.
That being the case, and especially if it's buggy, it might be best to simply remove that menu item.
That being the case, and especially if it's buggy, it might be best to simply remove that menu item.
Mark, I have reported this to the developers and suggested it should be removed, especially if it is essentially an obsolete function, and there are multiple other ways to create audio output.
BIAB & RB2026 Win.(Audiophile), Windows 10 Pro & Windows 11, Cakewalk Bandlab, Izotope Prod.Bundle, Roland RD-1000, Synthogy Ivory, Session Keys Grand S & Electric R, Kontakt, Focusrite 18i20, KetronSD2, NS40M, Pioneer Active Monitors.
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