I’m finding the audio export function in conjunction with the arranger track to be very un user friendly, maybe I’m just using it incorrectly but its very frustrating. I have an arranger track setup, its pretty straightforward, I play the segments in order, the arranger track just plays one 4 bar segment twice, so effectively adding 4 bars to the overall length of my track. When I export the track as audio, why cant Cubase mix down the track based on the arranger track ?? Ive had to add 4 bars to the overall length of the track and its still slightly out so I included 1 additional bar, but it then goes back to the start of the song and includes a small segment of the start in the mixdown ! its really annoying and not very user friendly. Why should I have to base the end locator on the overall length of the arranger track ? What if the arranger track was much more complicated, Id then have to manually work out the length of the track and set the locators accordingly, its a bit of a nonsense. Am I using this incorrectly ? How can I perform an audio mixdown of the entire song based on the arranger track ? Im using cubase 11 pro
Hi,
Flatten the Arranger track first, please. Then Export Audio Mixdown.
By using the arranger window and flattening it, this will alter the overall length of the track so I have to set the end locator appropriately for the export. That’s ok if the arrangement only changes the track structure slightly, but if its more complex I have to manually calculate what the “arranged” track length will be and adjust accordingly when exporting, bit of a pain, why doesn’t the audio export function have a checkbox something like “use arranger track for export” this would be a much more user friendly way to do an export
Hi,
- Ctrl + A (Select all)
- P (Set Locators to Selection Range)
The Locators are set to the whole song and you can export.
when using the arranger track this alters the overall length of the song. So if it was originally 121 bars, that would be the original end point. The arranger track alters this “end point” so I had to manually calculate the additional bars the arranger window would add and adjust accordingly. Ive had to find this out the hard way after exporting an audio file and it would cut off unexpectedly. Setting the locators this way (above) doesn’t work as you would expect if using the arranger track.
No, you don’t need to calculate anything ahead of time. Just flatten the arrangement, and yes that will change the song length. But then you execute the commands Martin showed you & you’ll end up with the Left Locator at the 1st Event in your Project and the Right Locator will be at your new “end point” - depending on reverb tails and the like you may want to manually lengthen it a bit.
These are good tips.
BUT: At the risk of sounding -whatever-… I think it’s fair to say that if there was a Cubase user responsible for the Arranger Track I was it… all those years ago. And I’m telling you that I -also- find the Arranger Track unfriendly and not what I originally envisioned in many ways. Here are just two…
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I do not think you should have to ‘flatten’ anything. I think Export Audio should ‘know’ that you have the Arranger activated and auto-magically render the WAV file to match the playback. And no effing with Locators or anything else. It should just -work- as you intuited it.
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In YET ANOTHER example of UI inconsistency, you have a completely unique little do-hickey for renaming each Arranger Object. Why the ■■■■ can’t you just click on the name (as you can most other places in Cubase) to rename an object? I know it seems tiny, but jeez-o-pete. It’s like they go out of their way to make every aspect of the program behave -slightly- differently. Like it would be ‘boring’ if the program all worked the same way.
OK, I’m done. 
like any complex software system, cubase has evolved over the years and greatly increased in complexity so I can see why some of these “functions” may have been left over from earlier incarnations or just neglected over the years. That’s not to excuse some of the “idiosyncrasies”, maybe cubase is in need of a complete overhaul from the ground up ? The arranger functionality is a perfect example of this, why not just make it as easy as checking a checkbox instead of several steps ?
Cubase 11 is kinda where Cubase VST was in about 20002. It had gone through a gazillion updates since it’s initial release and it had become totally ‘balkanised’… Every portion of the program looked -slightly- (or a lot!) different. So Charlie and Lars did the ‘clean slate’… they created SX. But over the past 17-18 years it’s become re-balkanised. Every time they add a new feature, it ends up working just a -little- bit different from the rest of Cubase. So over time, the consistency drifts.
The problem with the ‘clean slate’ (SX) is that it ripped away -many- features that users had become accustomed to… in exchange for ‘consistency’. We were told that this was the price of consistency, so we went with it. My fear of the clean slate is that it would-again-remove a lot of useful features.
I guess that’s the quandary, a complete redesign would probably change core functionality so that people who had got accustomed to it would suddenly have to start all over again and wouldn’t be particularly happy about it. Its typical of large software systems, it becomes bloated and inconsistent and eventually the only option is to rebuild from the ground up.
Thank you, this solution works!
once it’s bounced I undo flatten
For what it’s worth, I agree, esp. with point 1 (it should “just work”). I use the arranger track extensively during songwriting to try out different arrangements that I then export and share with performers, and yes, I know all about flattening, but it’s an unnecessary inconvenience.
Glad I found this thread. I’m only here because I couldn’t simply export my cut down arranger track edits, like one would reasonably expect to. Hopefully i’ll figure out the workaround soon enough.
For the benefit of any future searchers, here’s a quick guide:
- Select your Arranger Chain that you wish to export
- Flatten Chain
- Set the L,R locators (quick tip, Ctrl+A, then P), consider adjusting the end locator to keep any reverb tails etc.
- Export
5) !!! IMPORTANT!!! Undo Flatten, so that you can make future edits, retain what you had before, or export a different Arranger Chain, eg 60s, 30s, 15s versions if you’re doing strictly timed cut-downs.
Even better: Make the Flattening create a new project.
Nice! 
I don’t use the Arranger Track (I’m still trying to figure out if or how I can use it in my workflow), but I’m curious why real time export wouldn’t work?
But why can’t we just export arranger track chain? If we flatten the arranger track everything else is removed from the playlist. Does Cubase create alternative playlist we can access with previous view?