"Render only channels sent to parent" doesn't work for even channel counts

[timothys_monster]

Here is an overview of my track setup:



As you can see, every track has a different channel count. I was able to make odd channels by sending only 5 (of 6) and 7 (of 8) channels to the master bus.

When trying to render all items, it renders fine for 5 channels or 7 channels.

But when I try to render an item with 4 or 6 channels on a respective track, It will always fall back to the default channel no. defined in the render dropdown menu. In this case "mono":




Please see this post as a reference to a real-world example:

https://forum.cockos.com/showpost.ph...16&postcount=8

[timothys_monster]

I updated the post with some additional images to better showcase the behaviour.

[schwa]

Could you possibly post a minimal project that reproduces the behavior? That would save us having to reconstruct from screenshots.

[timothys_monster]

Sure thing, here we go:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1GGN...ew?usp=sharing

Thanks for looking into it!

[schwa]

Thanks for posting the project. I think what is happening is this:

- the render channel setting of mono is respected
- unless a track does not send all channels to parent
- in which case only the channels sent to parent are rendered

We could improve this by interpreting "render only channels sent to parent" as restrictive, rather than expansive. In other words:

- the render channel setting is respected
- unless "multichannel tracks to multichannel files" is enabled
- unless a track sends fewer channels to parent than would otherwise be rendered

With the render settings saved in your project, this would result in all 4 media items rendering as mono, because the render channel setting is mono. If you also enabled "multichannel tracks to multichannel files", then "render only channels sent to parent" would be respected.

[timothys_monster]

I can't believe I haven't tried checking both boxes. This makes so much more sense. That's great, now I understand the logic behind it.

I guess there are just so many options in the render dialog that sometimes you can get a little lost. Thanks for clearing things up to me!

Is there any way we can render odd channel count items without the need to restrict them via the parent send workaround?

Also, it's a little inconsistent then that even channel numbers DO get rendered as a 4 channel or 6 channel item...

[schwa]

The different behavior of the tracks with even numbers of channels sent to parent in your sample project is not because of the even numbers, it's because those tracks are sending all channels to parent.

For the next +dev build, the behavior will change so that "render only channels sent to parent" is restrictive. In other words, that setting only has an affect if the number of channels sent to parent is less than the number of channels that would otherwise be rendered.

[timothys_monster]

Thanks, that sounds like a very reasonable thing to do!