Freeze/Render etc. vs Project Length

[karbomusic]

I tend to have tracks where I use two mics source such as two mics on an amp just as a single example. They go in a folder for summing and once they are balanced as I want, I want to then bounce down or render/freeze these and place the resulting render on the folder track and I can then delete the two original tracks.

When rendering/freezing etc. Reaper sort of blindly renders from the very start of the timeline to the very end of the project. This also appears to ignore the project playback length setting in project settings because all that affects is playback/recording. So in this example, Reaper thinks the project length is 18 minutes but it's really about 6 minutes so here I sit with a rendered track that is 18 minutes long...





Ideally, what should occur is that it renders based on the total length of the items it is rendering (+tail). Otherwise it's eating up extra render time (took 3 minutes on a 4.5GHz box for a single track), creating larger files for no reason, and I have to now spend time trimming it up. Just imagine having to do that for 10-20 tracks per project for 12 projects.

What's the word on getting around this? I can't seem to find what param is the project length in the .RPP or I would have just grumbled a little and edited the RPP though I don't really want to have to hack the project file to fix this behavior.

Lastly, I thought Reaper might determine project length by end point of last item but I can't find an item beyond the end of the song but there was one there previously which is why reaper thinks the song is 18 minutes long but seems that should shrink when the item is deleted.

[Goldreap]

My guess is that there is a tiny item still there as the result of an edit and it could be only a few samples long. But I guess you've already zoomed right in to try and find something like that, or looked in project media. Or is there an action something like 'move cursor to start of next item' that you could use to find something like that?

[vitalker]

Originally Posted by Goldreap

My guess is that there is a tiny item still there as the result of an edit and it could be only a few samples long. But I guess you've already zoomed right in to try and find something like that, or looked in project media. Or is there an action something like 'move cursor to start of next item' that you could use to find something like that?

You really don't need to do this. Just go to View->Media bay and open the Media items tab and you'll find it.

[karbomusic]

I'll check again but I did a reasonably good job selecting everything to the right and deleting anything I couldn't see.

[karbomusic]

Originally Posted by vitalker

You really don't need to do this. Just go to View->Media bay and open the Media items tab and you'll find it.

I'm now 100% sure there are no items beyond the end of the song because I have script that creates a selection that begins with the first item on the timeline and ends at the last item on the timeline and it shows there are no items beyond where I expect them to be.

Anyone else? The way this works doesn't seem very useful and have probably 60-100 tracks across 12 projects I need to consolidate...

[heda]

Even if there are items there, it shouldn't affect freeze length, because I think freeze works until there is no audio signal for a specific time tail. Very strange.

you could use "Track: Render selected area of tracks to stereo stem tracks (and mute originals)" instead of freezing. That forces the render to time selection. But freezing is more convenient.

[karbomusic]

Originally Posted by heda

Even if there are items there, it shouldn't affect freeze length, because I think freeze works until there is no audio signal for a specific time tail. Very strange.

you could use "Track: Render selected area of tracks to stereo stem tracks (and mute originals)" instead of freezing. That forces the render to time selection. But freezing is more convenient.

Thanks Heda... I don't remember seeing selected area in the choices but (must be an action) will check.

[heda]

yes there are some of these render stems actions with time area.

I was wondering... No idea, but maybe a plugin in the track is confusing freezing? Have you tried disabling any plugins that you could have and test if the freeze is the same?

[karbomusic]

Originally Posted by heda

yes there are some of these render stems actions with time area.

I was wondering... No idea, but maybe a plugin in the track is confusing freezing? Have you tried disabling any plugins that you could have and test if the freeze is the same?

I have not, I may test later to see.

[Jeffsounds]

Originally Posted by karbomusic

I'm now 100% sure there are no items beyond the end of the song because I have script that creates a selection that begins with the first item on the timeline and ends at the last item on the timeline and it shows there are no items beyond where I expect them to be. ]

I know you probably already thought about this but I'll ask anyway. You took into account any hidden tracks?

[karbomusic]

Originally Posted by Jeffsounds

I know you probably already thought about this but I'll ask anyway. You took into account any hidden tracks?

Actually Jeff, I didn't so that is an excellent call being that I have plenty of them hidden so thanks! I'll check later.

[karbomusic]

You were correct Jeff, it was some silver in a hidden track and to Heda your suggestion both works and comes in handy.

[heda]

strange... freezing only renders where necessary even if there are items later in other tracks.
but.. I've found this option in Preferences/Audio/Rendering "When freezing, render the entire track length if there are track or per-take FX"

[karbomusic]

Originally Posted by heda

strange... freezing only renders where necessary even if there are items later in other tracks.
but.. I've found this option in Preferences/Audio/Rendering "When freezing, render the entire track length if there are track or per-take FX"

I'm fairly sure I tried freeze as I wanted to be thorough but my real interest was rendering anyway because this is a consolidation of tracks in a folder, not freezing with any intent of going back. So it is possible I didn't test freeze for this problem and didn't want to use freeze for some other reason. Since I fixed it already I can't confirm but when I move to the next project I'll test for sure.

[Jeffsounds]

Originally Posted by karbomusic

You were correct Jeff, it was some silver in a hidden track and to Heda your suggestion both works and comes in handy.

Happy I could help YOU for a change! You have helped me and most other people here at some point so it was nice I could help.