Does exporting without rendering vst instruments change the sound?

Cubase
1

Hi Y’all

I’m wondering about the difference between exporting with VST instruments still in their instrument track form vs. rendering them to audio first.

No complex mix, even just a piano solo tune.

Does the sound change in any way if I export the mix without bouncing the VSTs to audio beforehand? I’ve heard mixed opinions about real-time processing issues, so I just wanted to get some insight from others who have experience with this.

Cheers

2

Hi,

I always export directly from Instruments. No double-export needed.

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3

Technically there’s no difference.

The only thing that would change would be any random effects or random LFOs etc. (i.e., not synced to project tempo or key presses etc).

But these would be different from render to render anyway, regardless of the method used.

There have been times when I’ve needed to render the instrument a few times, to capture a specific thing related to above. But usually that can be solved by using some automation etc. to make sure that everything triggers correctly.

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4

Thank you both

1 Like