Cubase LE 4 Audio mixdown

[sspbass]

Hello,

New here.

Audio mixdown:
Export then audio mixdown then pop up screen which is the audio engine output.
under this section it lists all my outputs which are
stereo out and stero out 2.

It only lets me choose one of these. I need both because if I choose just one only the drums come out in a wav file.
I must be missing something basic!

Sorry about this easy post but I cant figure this one out.

[sparqee]

Sounds like you have some track assigned to your "stereo out" and other tracks assigned to your "stereo out 2". Make sure that all tracks are assigned to the same stereo output bus and then choose that bus for your Export > Audio Mixdown.

[sspbass]

Thank you.
Figured it was something very simple. Thats what happens after 10 hours of work.
Got the mixdown to .wav.
Now nero says it cant burn it to disc becuase its corrupt. So I did another audiomixdown. Same error with Nero when trying to burn to cd.
I tried WMPlayer and it gave different errors, but said it could not burn it do to not being able to determine the length.
Any help on this one and my problems are solved for the next 15 minutes.
Thanks again!

[sparqee]

Is your audio mixdown 16bit, 44.1K? That's what you need to burn an audio CD.

[sspbass]

Looks like it was on 32 bit.
Thanks again!
Im going to bed now.
Need sleepy.

[andygee70]

Seems like I'm having the same issues - sounds great in Cubase, then seems quiet and lacking in dynamics in the mixdown. It's like being a drowning man seeing the shoreline just out of reach. I thought I'd done all the hard work in the recording. Just want the mixdown to sound like it does in Cubase - how simple is that?!

Tried one suggestion, reduced the main mixer stereo out channels to below 0db. I had a couple of 'hot' tracks, namely the drums. I don't know if I did the next part right but I 'Normalised' all the tracks to 0db in the 'Audio Processes' to try and make the sound a little louder and more vibrant as it does in Cubase - still no joy.

Guess I'll have to try and understand the theory behind using compressors and limiters - had a look in the Cubase inserts to see if there were any tools in there and couldn't find any.

It's a bummer being a newbie

[captainL]

Originally Posted by andygee70

Guess I'll have to try and understand the theory behind using compressors and limiters - had a look in the Cubase inserts to see if there were any tools in there and couldn't find any.

It's a bummer being a newbie

Look on the insert VST Dynamics - it has a gate, compressor, and limiter for ya. have at it.

[andygee70]

Originally Posted by captainL

Look on the insert VST Dynamics - it has a gate, compressor, and limiter for ya. have at it.

Top man! Will look into them.

I had a Urika moment this morning. Decided to mixdown the audio in Cubase to WMA because it says that you don't lose anything in the quality of the audio after it compresses the file. Mixed it down and compared it to the original track in Cubase and bingo there's no difference between the WMA and original Cubase audio (even though the file size is only about 12mb compared to the 50mb size that the wav file is after Cubase converstion). Still seems strange that a smaller file size sounds twice as good as one more than 4 times it's size. There's got to be a logical explaination for that. Does anyone know the reason why or am I missing something fundemental?

Now my next problem is converting from WMA to wav or MP3

[Waffleness]

Originally Posted by andygee70

I had a Urika moment this morning. Decided to mixdown the audio in Cubase to WMA because it says that you don't lose anything in the quality of the audio after it compresses the file.

Thats not true i'm afraid. If you encode a wav file to WMA, the audio quality will be decreased. Its just the way the WMA is encoded means its not drastically lower, just a bit.

Originally Posted by andygee70

Mixed it down and compared it to the original track in Cubase and bingo there's no difference between the WMA and original Cubase audio (even though the file size is only about 12mb compared to the 50mb size that the wav file is after Cubase converstion). Still seems strange that a smaller file size sounds twice as good as one more than 4 times it's size. There's got to be a logical explaination for that. Does anyone know the reason why or am I missing something fundemental?

Now my next problem is converting from WMA to wav or MP3

I expect it sounds better because its either louder, or has an EQ on it (maybe from winder media player?).

I would highly recommend not converting the WMA to wav or Mp3. Always mix your cubase audio down to a .wav, and then move that into the file format you want. For example I mixdown all my Cubase files as .wav and then bounce them to mp3's. This way your not constantly re-encoding and ruining the audio.

[andygee70]

Originally Posted by Waffleness

Thats not true i'm afraid. If you encode a wav file to WMA, the audio quality will be decreased. Its just the way the WMA is encoded means its not drastically lower, just a bit.



I expect it sounds better because its either louder, or has an EQ on it (maybe from winder media player?).

I would highly recommend not converting the WMA to wav or Mp3. Always mix your cubase audio down to a .wav, and then move that into the file format you want. For example I mixdown all my Cubase files as .wav and then bounce them to mp3's. This way your not constantly re-encoding and ruining the audio.

I understand that (and thank you for your input ) but my point initially regarded the major problems I was having with the .WAV mixdown (which is the general point being made in the thread). The Cubase mix in the console sounds great - then to .WAV mixdown it sounds quieter, less vibrant and less dynamic. So having tried one quick fix option (lowering the stereo output channel to just below 0db and then normalising the whole recording to 0db) didn't solve my audio problem AND to top it all off I had the hi hat making a weird 'phasing' sound in the mixdown that wasn't there in the Cubase original mix.

I just think that a reasonable WMA mixdown is preferable to a bad .WAV one if it corrects an issue in the short term. Obviously the idea is to attempt a proper fix so that the .WAV mixdown sounds like the original Cubase mix.

Read a bit on here and it seems as though it's a compression and limiter problem (I've joined the many others with this problem). So until i understand more about compressing and limiting, that's the best I can come up with for now.

However, any advice offered to a complete newbie will be gratefully received