How do you export audio regions as files in a chosen format AND destination?

Cubase
1

I am new to Cubase but have used ProTools for over 10 years. I am enjoying using it so far! But there is one thing that I have not worked out how to do and I’d like to check if I am missing something.

I like the Audio Mixdown feature - it looks great for quickly running off a demo, or quickly exporting stems if collaborating with someone etc. But, for final files for delivery to my clients I like to print audio within the session. I think doing it this way has many benefits which I won’t go into here!

In ProTools I used to print all the audio, trim them all down, add fades etc, consolidate it all, double-click each region and re-name them, then ‘export regions as files’, which would open a dialogue where you could chose format and also chose a desired location to save the new files.

With Cubase, I have managed to print the audio, trim, add fades etc, then ‘bounce selection’ (which as far as I can tell does the exact same thing as ‘consolidate’ in ProTools) … and then to re-name them, I go to the Pool and re-name them there … but in order to save the files in a location of my choosing I have to manually go to the ‘Audio’ folder in Finder and move the files manually which is a bit of a faff. And, I usually run my sessions in 24bit 48kHz, so if I want to deliver files in 16bit (which is most of the time), before renaming the files, I right-click on the files in the Pool, and click ‘Convert Files…’ - here I am able to convert them to 16 bit (but no option for mp3 which is a bit annoying) … and then I have to re-name those new converted files, and then move them manually out of the audio folder in Finder.

My questions are:

  1. when I ‘Convert Files’ in the Pool down to 16bit, does it add dither?
  2. Is there a better way of doing this?? Is there a way of just selecting an audio region and exporting it as a file?

(note: I know that ‘Audio Mixdown’ has all these features … but as stated above, it is my preference to print within the session for final files for delivery and also one of my clients requires me to deliver seamless loops, and I tried using the audio mix down function for this and it just meant that the loop clicked/popped … whereas as printing and preparing the loop within the session is way more accurate.)

2

I’m not familiar with Pro Tools, so no idea if my reply is helpful to you.

  1. no, dither isn’t applied automatically.

  2. For preparing a project for collaboration one way is to use the ‘backup project’ function. This copies the whole project to a new folder (Back up Project Options Dialog) and leaves the original untouched. If there are track versions in use, remove them.
    Then bounce the files there (bounce equals ‘consolidate’). Go to pool, rightclick and choose ‘Remove unused files’, choose trash as destination then empty trash. Consider renaming the tracks before bouncing as the bounced files will get the track name.
    Now all that’s left in the new/backup folder are the active files in the project. You can still rename them in the pool or via the info line.
    All files are in the ‘Audio’ folder of the project. If you’ve trashed the unused everything is clean.

3

hey marQs, thanks very much for your reply.

  1. regarding dithering - is there any way of applying dither when converting files within the pool?
  2. I feel that this process might be even more involved than the way I have described above!
4

  1. Simply apply dither as an offline process before converting. Offline processing works for all selected events/clips no matter if selected in the project window or the pool.

  2. Guess each DAW has an own understanding of „good housekeeping“.