Well folks, we've come a long way. Now we're getting close to the end, and it's time to take a look at our mix, make sure everything is ship shape, and export our final track. Here's what it looks like right now...
There are a few important things to double check before you export your record. First, you need to make sure that none of your tracks are redlining,. When your signal goes above a certain number of decibels, it will start to deteriorate, and it will sound very bad when you export it. Audio that is redlining never sounds good when exported, and always clips, so we want to make sure that's not happening in our project before we export.
The easiest way to do this is in the Mixer. The view you're looking at above, and have probably been looking at the whole time, is the "Editor." We want to open its counterpart, the "Mixer."
To open the mixer, look for the "Mixer" button below the "Editor" button on the top right hand corner of the screen, or shown highlighted below.
Once you open the mixer, you'll be presented with all your tracks vertically, like this...
This is the best way to see all the levels of your tracks at once and manipulate them. At this point, you should listen to your entire project while watching the mixer, to make sure none of your tracks are redlining (or even getting close to redlining!) If you're track redlines, you'll see something like this...
The "Bass Drums" track there very clearly redlined at some point during the project. The easiest way to fix this is just to bring down the level of the fader on that track, and make it quieter. You might have to adjust the levels of the other tracks' faders to account for it. Mixing itself is an art, and takes a long time to master (no pun intended).
If you're Master Bus itself is redlining, just turn down the fader. Even if it sounds too quiet, we'll be able to adjust the volume later during the export process.
Once you're satisfied with your levels, and you like the way the project sounds overall, we're finally ready to export! Start by going to the top bar and clicking Session > Export > Export to Audio File(s)...
This will open the Export Dialogue for you, in which you'll be presented with a lot more options.
Most of these options you don't have to worry about. The most important aspects of this window are the Location to which your file will be exported (shown in blue). The Name you want to give your exported file (shown in green), if you choose to name it, and the Format option's Edit button.
You can choose whatever format you prefer, the default WAV format should work well for most purposes. However, the Edit button here is the important part. In order to make the volume on the exported recording loud enough to sound good, we want to Normalize our exported audio. To do that, click the Edit button, and you'll be shown a new window...
There will be a lot of options presented to you in this window. Most of them won't matter to you at this level. If you choose to, or it's relevant to you, you can Trim the silence at the start of the export or Trim the silence at the end. However, you should definitely Normalize the audio by clicking the "Normalize" checkbox. That way the volume level in the exported file will map to the proper decibel level for your tracks and sound good.
Once you hit "Save". It's time to export! If you want to make sure no errors occur during the export, click the "Time Span" tab at the top of the export window and select the "Realtime Export" checkbox.
Then all you have to do is click "Export," wait for the project to play and export and... voila! Your project will be exported to the file location to which you instructed Ardour to export it. Congratulations, you've just created your first track in Ardour!
Here's what the sample track that we've been working on during this tutorial ended up sounding like...
Now all it needs is a sweet verse on top of it and it will be ready for concert! And, the best part is, it incorporates everything that we've been discussing in these articles!
Once again, congratulations! You're one step closer to being a famous producer. Just keep practicing, and you'll be there in no time.
There are a few important things to double check before you export your record. First, you need to make sure that none of your tracks are redlining,. When your signal goes above a certain number of decibels, it will start to deteriorate, and it will sound very bad when you export it. Audio that is redlining never sounds good when exported, and always clips, so we want to make sure that's not happening in our project before we export.
The easiest way to do this is in the Mixer. The view you're looking at above, and have probably been looking at the whole time, is the "Editor." We want to open its counterpart, the "Mixer."
To open the mixer, look for the "Mixer" button below the "Editor" button on the top right hand corner of the screen, or shown highlighted below.
Once you open the mixer, you'll be presented with all your tracks vertically, like this...
This is the best way to see all the levels of your tracks at once and manipulate them. At this point, you should listen to your entire project while watching the mixer, to make sure none of your tracks are redlining (or even getting close to redlining!) If you're track redlines, you'll see something like this...
The "Bass Drums" track there very clearly redlined at some point during the project. The easiest way to fix this is just to bring down the level of the fader on that track, and make it quieter. You might have to adjust the levels of the other tracks' faders to account for it. Mixing itself is an art, and takes a long time to master (no pun intended).
If you're Master Bus itself is redlining, just turn down the fader. Even if it sounds too quiet, we'll be able to adjust the volume later during the export process.
Once you're satisfied with your levels, and you like the way the project sounds overall, we're finally ready to export! Start by going to the top bar and clicking Session > Export > Export to Audio File(s)...
This will open the Export Dialogue for you, in which you'll be presented with a lot more options.
Most of these options you don't have to worry about. The most important aspects of this window are the Location to which your file will be exported (shown in blue). The Name you want to give your exported file (shown in green), if you choose to name it, and the Format option's Edit button.
You can choose whatever format you prefer, the default WAV format should work well for most purposes. However, the Edit button here is the important part. In order to make the volume on the exported recording loud enough to sound good, we want to Normalize our exported audio. To do that, click the Edit button, and you'll be shown a new window...
There will be a lot of options presented to you in this window. Most of them won't matter to you at this level. If you choose to, or it's relevant to you, you can Trim the silence at the start of the export or Trim the silence at the end. However, you should definitely Normalize the audio by clicking the "Normalize" checkbox. That way the volume level in the exported file will map to the proper decibel level for your tracks and sound good.
Once you hit "Save". It's time to export! If you want to make sure no errors occur during the export, click the "Time Span" tab at the top of the export window and select the "Realtime Export" checkbox.
Then all you have to do is click "Export," wait for the project to play and export and... voila! Your project will be exported to the file location to which you instructed Ardour to export it. Congratulations, you've just created your first track in Ardour!
Here's what the sample track that we've been working on during this tutorial ended up sounding like...
Now all it needs is a sweet verse on top of it and it will be ready for concert! And, the best part is, it incorporates everything that we've been discussing in these articles!
Once again, congratulations! You're one step closer to being a famous producer. Just keep practicing, and you'll be there in no time.
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