Converting your soft synth tracks to audio

Once your project sounds the way you want it to, it’s extremely easy to convert your soft synth MIDI tracks to either new audio tracks, or Wave, MP3, or other exported files.

You can also do a temporary conversion, called freezing. See Freeze tracks and synths for more information.

To convert your soft synth tracks to new audio tracks

1.	Mute all tracks that you don’t want to convert.

2.	Click the Track view Tracks menu and choose Bounce to Track(s).

The Bounce to Track(s) dialog box appears.

3.	In the Destination field, choose a new or pre-existing track to put the new audio data on.

4.	If you’ve saved presets from previous bounce operations, you can choose a preset from the Preset field.

5.	In the Source Category field, choose Tracks.

6.	In the Channel Format field, choose mono if you want a mono track, stereo if you want a stereo track, and split mono if you want to create separate mono tracks.

7.	In the Source/Buses field, choose the output bus(es) that the soft synth tracks are using (usually the main outputs).

8.	In the Mix Enables field, make sure all choices are selected.

9.

Click OK.

SONAR creates new audio tracks from the outputs you selected. When you’re through converting, don’t forget to mute your MIDI tracks so you won’t hear them and the new audio track(s) at the same time.

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 for more information.

To export your soft synth tracks as Wave, MP3, or other type files

1.	Mute all tracks that you don’t want to export; make sure you don’t mute the synth track or the audio track that the soft synth is patched into, or the MIDI track(s) that you are using as a source.

2.	Use the File > Export > Audio command.

The Export Audio dialog box appears.

3.	In the Look in field, choose the location where you want the new, exported file to be.

4.	Type a file name in the File name field.

5.	Choose the type of file, the format, and the bit depth of the new file you’re creating—for MP3 use 16 bits.

6.	In the Mix Enables field, make sure all choices are selected.

7.

Click OK.

SONAR creates a new audio file of the type you specified. Find the file in the folder you specified, and double-click it to listen to it.

 

See:

Drawing soft synth automation in the Clips pane

Synth Rack