Rendering selected stems sequentually thru the master bus

[mustgroove]

I'm wondering whether there's a Reaper setting to render selected stems sequentially thru the master bus...

Stem rendering is where you're rendering the output of a particular stem before the signal goes any further (i.e. before it hits the master bus), but what I'm after is a way of selecting a bunch of stems in a project, and having them each render individually, one by one, thru the master bus...

Currently the method is to manually solo a stem and then render "Master mix"

[nofish]

I assume the reason this is not implemented (if I didn't miss it) is that as soon as you have effects going on the master buss that a threshold dependant (i.e. compression) or time-variant stuff (i.e. free running lfo's, chorus, phaser) the sum of the output of the stems through the master will never be the same as the mixdown render through the master.

On the other hand - as you said, we can do it manually already by soloing the tracks, so why not implement it automatically.

[MrJones]

This needs to be added!! As an option to export tracks with the entire FX chain up and including master. (it needs essentially to work like solo'ing each track separately and then rendering/exporting as usual)

1. Aren't you doing this wrong?? The tracks will sound differently exported separately with Master FX than combined with Master FX anyway, you silly. No, it's just a different use case to regular stems: I need it for mastering exports. Why? I use effects on folder tracks which the mastering engineer usually doesn't have, so I need all my non-folder tracks exported and I need them to be processed with the entire FX chain for complete sound as a "flat" track layout without the folder effects. The current stem render is useless for this. Also, for this scenario a slight sound difference doesn't matter much because the master and mixing engineer will tweak the final sound, and the stuff most heavily affected by this way of exporting (which is dynamic compression!) won't be applied by me in this stage anyway.

2. Wouldn't it be very slow or need 999 master effect instances made by REAPER for each track separately? Yes, it would probably need to be rendered in sequence for each track to avoid resource exhaustion in the simplest implementation. This means also that yes, it would be slower than a regular export since for each track most of the song needs to be processed over and over. However, I'll only need this export one single time when my album is completed and I'm handing it off to final mastering/mixing touches, so I'll hit this export off for a song and grab some lunch or run it over night. When I'm back, it's finished. I don't need to use this every day or as often as a regular export which I need all the time for previewing and such.

3. Can't you just solo each track manually and export for each track? Dear god, no. Right now I have 5 songs with each 20-50 tracks, and each export run needs a minimum of 8 minutes. I'm not paid for button clicking, I'm paid for making music. The process doesn't need to be fast in overall, but requiring constant interaction for soloing during the entire hour-long process makes it infeasible. It can be a difference of an entire workday spend with clicking vs a neat run over night.

4. Can't you just duplicate the folder tracks as often as their children and duplicate all the effects, so that each track has its own parent that can be rendered for separate and complete sound? No, because this is infeasible for huge song layouts (the computer will often simply run out of memory) - there is a reason I used folder tracks before, which is both efficiency and meaningful grouping. Consequently, this also wrecks too much with the song layout so it's too hard to do again/reverse if something about the song needs to be changed. In overall it can work for simpler and smaller songs, but it's a huge pain and not really universally usable as a workaround anyway.

Right now the only workaround actually useful in practice is a script http://forum.cockos.com/showthread.php?t=79721 written by the very helpful X-Raym. However, this can only be an interim solution for a proper full FX export.

[mattgoody]

I also would like to see this implemented.

My use case is: I sell instrumentals to rappers and singers with small budgets. They are generally upset if the effects don't come printed with each track, however using sends is imperative to my workflow. The best way I know to get this done is to solo each track (I personally take off master track FX) and render each one sequentially.

I have looked into using X-Raym's script and I agree it is a workaround. I believe that if there were a way to pass parameters to reaper Actions via ReaScript that would solve the problem, but I don't think one can pass any params to Main_OnCommand(xxxxx, 0) besides the command ID and 0.

There is a reaper Action (41855) that lets you render using the current settings with a new file name, but it just pops up a user input dialog and I cannot figure out how to programmatically enter the Track name into it, now do i have enough knowledge to know if doing so is even possible.

Just wanted to add my support for this feature req

[MrJones]

Any update on this? I wanted to start using REAPER for more serious stuff, but this is a big roadblock for me.

[CawawaC]

+ 1 !!!

Much needed for game audio : exporting fully mixed audio assets for use in the implementation stage.

[mlprod]

+1 on this again!

[me2beats]

I recently wrote a script "Stem Render (with routing, using the most recent settings with a new fn)" https://github.com/me2beats/rea-me2/...0new%20fn).lua
This is how it works: https://github.com/me2beats/rea-me2/...m%20render.gif
But it certainly is not the best idea especially if you have many tracks to render

[MrJones]

Can we at least have some sort of info on whether this is considered at all?

This is the one major pain in the b*tt which prevents me from working together with mixing and mastering engineers, since it currently requires a complicated setup which afterwards lets me wait for multiple hours only to reveal some sort of mistake I made because all those script solutions are brittle to use UI-wise, and at this point I'm considering my options with other pieces of software because this is such a huge roadblock. This feature would make a day and night difference to me.

Please at least give us some idea on whether this might eventually be added or not..

For me it's not just the awful performance of script-based solutions (although getting a better render time than 5-6 hours per piece would certainly be appreciated), but all scripts I have seen basically do the job but require a careful manual selection of the correct tracks and clicking multiple dialogs to make it work and then it has weird resulting file names that you easily mix up because $track is not available in that context and ,... it's all just a mess.

@me2beats: from your gif your script seems to require multiple clicks between the rendering of each track, which basically makes it useless in scenarios where a single track requires 10+ minutes to export... (you'll be sitting there for hours doing 2-3 clicks every 10 minutes which would be a nightmare)

[MrJones]

Is there any chance of some simple sort of feedback like "maybe", "sorry, not adding it - if you really need it, check out the competition" or "yes, this is planned to be added soon"?

I'm currently investigating FL Studio and others for this feature, and if I don't hear ANY feedback on the plans of REAPER regarding this any time soon, I will probably switch for good. I love the software and all, but this thing is such a time waster in my workflow that I need to do something about it..

EDIT: just as a feedback, apparently this can be done in FL studio in one go by setting up a separate mixer for each track and using "split mixer tracks" export. While it requires some initial setup, the export appears then to be a one-click operation. This is MUCH BETTER than what Reaper currently offers.

[djangotsp]

+1. A "master out" bounce for each track would be fantastic.

I often have an EQ on my drum bus, or a sidechain pumping effect on a folder of disparate instruments. Bouncing these elements individually becomes a time consuming affair.

[tsulkoske]

PLEASE ADD THIS FEATURE!!

This is also a problem when rendering individual media items. I do tons of sound design work in Reaper, and for the longest time I couldn't figure out WHY the renders were skipping over my folders and master bus. I seriously thought it was a glitch. My sessions contain 100-200 SFX on average, so individual rendering (and online rendering for that matter) is totally out of the question. As it stands, I cannot apply limiting or compression to all of my files and batch render them. This is a HUGE obstacle to my workflow!!!!

[mlprod]

Originally Posted by tsulkoske

PLEASE ADD THIS FEATURE!!

This is also a problem when rendering individual media items. I do tons of sound design work in Reaper, and for the longest time I couldn't figure out WHY the renders were skipping over my folders and master bus. I seriously thought it was a glitch. My sessions contain 100-200 SFX on average, so individual rendering (and online rendering for that matter) is totally out of the question. As it stands, I cannot apply limiting or compression to all of my files and batch render them. This is a HUGE obstacle to my workflow!!!!

Yep, definitely needs to happen!

[raiirock]

+1 to this feature.

[Johann]

+1 !!!

I was just about to start a new threat with exactly this idea, when I found this Feature Request. Please implement it.

[Sju]

Just recently needed exactly this. +1

[tsulkoske]

Bumping this thread for 2017. This has been a major roadblock in the workflow of designing sound effects for games. Sometimes you just need a volume boost, or some overall compression/EQ on the master bus once everything is finished. Sometimes I'm working in sessions with 100+ SFX. There's no way in hell I can just sit there and render each one separately.
PLEASE LET US BATCH RENDER THROUGH THE MASTER TRACK!

Okay I'm done

[MikComposer]

Yes please, including sequential render for tracks with kontakt, so for example you specify sampler tracks, so the tracks that are sending to it are being rendered sequentially trough it too.

[mlprod]

Originally Posted by tsulkoske

Bumping this thread for 2017. This has been a major roadblock in the workflow of designing sound effects for games. Sometimes you just need a volume boost, or some overall compression/EQ on the master bus once everything is finished. Sometimes I'm working in sessions with 100+ SFX. There's no way in hell I can just sit there and render each one separately.
PLEASE LET US BATCH RENDER THROUGH THE MASTER TRACK!

Okay I'm done

Are you aware that you can batch process items with FX chain? I wasn't until recently...

[tunevault]

Same as others, need the "render selected items" option to be able to render through the master bus as well so that I can dump a bunch of mixes in on separate tracks, put a mastering chain on the master bus, then render each mix through the master bus. Right now have to duplicate the mastering chain on each track which brings Reaper to a crawl.

[mlprod]

Originally Posted by tunevault

Same as others, need the "render selected items" option to be able to render through the master bus as well so that I can dump a bunch of mixes in on separate tracks, put a mastering chain on the master bus, then render each mix through the master bus. Right now have to duplicate the mastering chain on each track which brings Reaper to a crawl.

For items you can use the batch item processor as I mentioned above. Monitor with your FX chain on the master, then copy that FX chain to the batch processor.
As for rendering stems(tracks) through master that would indeed be very nice to have.

[Travesty]

Can you use the render queue to do this?

[teeramusic]

+1 to this!

[SubbaseDnB]

+1 for this

[ferropop]

Tremendously necessary in 2018 workflow.

[ferropop]

Ok I made something that hopefully people can expand on!


Create a custom action "Render Track Through Parent Folder" with these actions:

SWS: Save current track selection
Track: Toggle solo for selected tracks
SWS: Select only parent(s) of selected folder track(s)
Track: Render tracks to stereo post-fader stem tracks (and mute originals)
Track: Restore saved track selection
SWS: Select only parent(s) of selected folder track(s)
Track: Unmute tracks
SWS: Restore saved track selection
Track: Unsolo tracks


I put hard mutes and pans on the folder to demonstrate that it works.

This is what you get:



Improvements:
1. Name the printed stem according to the source track.
2. Select a bunch of tracks and automate to run on each.

Ideas??

[timboid]

Can you expand a little bit on why Render queue is not enough?
Is it because you want a single command to render sequential tracks?