exporting a mix for mastering

[janjaal]

i mix itb, and do i just go on file and export the mix? or should i record the mix into a stereo image and export that image to be mastered?

[Darwin James]

Bounce the multi-track session to a stereo .wav file.

Once.

[janjaal]

by BOUNCING, u mean just export it normally right???

[audionerve]

Export it as a Stereo wav, yes.

[janjaal]

ok, that's what i do all the time...

but here is the story, my band partner started going to audio engineering class at METALWORKS INSTITUTE, and yesterday he called me and told me that "we are doing everything wrong". and the reason is that we MUST record the mix into a stereo track, then i said if i do so there will be a slight change in that stereo track from the original mix even with the best converter in the world, and he said NO, THERE WILL BE A CHANGE IF U EXPORT THE MIX AND THE TEACHER SAID WHOEVER CAN'T HEAR THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE EXPORTED MIX AND THE ORIGINAL MIX HAS HEARING PROBLEM...

that's why it's making me wonder

[Key]

Your friend is paying for some bad advice. If you are trying to avoid distortions and added noise then you should "render" "bounce" "export" or do "offline processing" - one of those, they are all the same thing.

[matt2525]

janjaal, I think you're gettin two half true stories here!!

Export/bounce from your DAW should give you exactly what you heard when mixing down - but it's not always the case. For whatever reason, there seems to be some slight discrepancies between what you hear when you play the multitrack through the DAW, and what you get when you export in the majority of DAWs. It's not massive, but there is a difference, I have heard it quite clearly and also performed phase flip tests which do not null.

Recording to a stereo file, if the audio leaves your DAW system at all, will usually pass through some DA/AD process, which obvously affects the sound, or if it's done to an external digital recorder MAY have a slight risk of running into jitter issues etc.

The best way available, assuming you don't want to send your mix to any analogue processing or tape, is to record to a stereo wav internally, if your DAW allows. Basically create a stereo track in your DAW, set the inputs for that channel to come from the main stereo mix outputs, arm for record, then record the whole track in. This gives EXACTLY the mix that was leaving the stereo mix buss of your DAW when you played it.

If your DAW doesn't have this functionality, next best thing is an external digital loop , e.g SPDIF cable from your soundcard's out plugged directly back into it's input.

[Key]

Hey Matt, how did you do the inverse cancellation test? With the S/PDIF trick? Did you try to repeat it with a distortion measurement of some sort?

The only reason I ask is I can see some weird ways in which things will actually shift for the better when rendering instead of recording. Now even though this will measure as a shift from more distortions on the multitrack playback to less distortions on the render this in fact in itself is sort of a distortion because it's not what you were actively mixing. And well sometimes an increase of distortion seems to sound good somehow in a subjective sense.

[bob katz]

Originally Posted by janjaal

ok, that's what i do all the time...

but here is the story, my band partner started going to audio engineering class at METALWORKS INSTITUTE, and yesterday he called me and told me that "we are doing everything wrong". and the reason is that we MUST record the mix into a stereo track, then i said if i do so there will be a slight change in that stereo track from the original mix even with the best converter in the world, and he said NO, THERE WILL BE A CHANGE IF U EXPORT THE MIX AND THE TEACHER SAID WHOEVER CAN'T HEAR THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE EXPORTED MIX AND THE ORIGINAL MIX HAS HEARING PROBLEM...

that's why it's making me wonder

Do they give these people licenses to teach? For that matter, I don't have a license either! But your teacher is giving you bad advice. Ask him if he's ever done a null test on files bounced to disc versus recorded into a track. If the system is up to snuff, the files will be IDENTICAL.

[janjaal]

Originally Posted by bob katz

Do they give these people licenses to teach?

haha, i personally learned everything by reading and testing. and have no license either...
however my band partner is paying 20 grands for one year audio engineering class, TO GET A LICENSE. and i really doubt if he could gain one tenth of the knowledge and the experience that i have from my home studio from 8 years... because sometimes he tells me some simple stuff that he learned that makes me wonder and doubt in myself and make myself looks stupid on gearslutz haha