Reference Guide

921
Bouncing tracks
Mixing
Bouncing tracks
The Track view Tracks > Bounce to Track(s) command lets you combine one or more audio tracks
into a submix. A submix can be a mono track, a stereo track or several mono tracks that contain the
mixture of the original tracks, preserving the volume, pan, and effects for each track. If you’re
bouncing tracks that are routed to a surround bus (SONAR Producer only), you can bounce them to
as many mono tracks as you have surround channels, by choosing the Split Mono option in the
Channel Format field of the Bounce to Tracks dialog box, and also choosing a surround bus in the
Source Category field. After their creation, the submix tracks are just like any other tracks—you can
edit them, add effects, copy them to another project, etc. The original, unmixed audio tracks are not
deleted, so you can archive them and recover them later, or continue using them as before.
The Track view Tracks > Bounce to Track(s) command operates completely offline, meaning you
can mix down tracks that may be too complex for your machine to actually play in real time.
Here are some reasons to use Bounce to Track(s):
• Your mix is so complex that real-time playback is impossible. Bounce to Track(s) produces the
correct mix, and store the result in a new track or tracks.
• You require more CPU time for your real-time effects. With Bounce to Track(s), you can premix
some of your tracks with real-time effects applied, saving CPU time during playback.
If you mix down to tracks that already have data, the new events are placed in the track, but do not
overwrite existing material.
To mix down (bounce) audio tracks
1. Set all volume, pan, effects, and automation settings just as you want them.
2. Select the tracks or clips you want to mix down.
3. If you are using effects on the tracks and want to mix the effects down at this time, select the
whole length of the longest track or clip plus an extra measure for the reverb or effects “tail.”
4. Click the Track view Tracks menu and choose Bounce to Track(s) to open the Bounce to
Track(s) dialog box.
Note: You control the bit depth of all rendering operations (bouncing, freezing, applying effects)
in Edit > Preferences > File - Audio Data, in the Render Bit Depth field. The default value of
32 is the best for most situations. See “Bit depths for rendering audio” on page 1187 for more
information.