Exporting audio

You can export audio from Reason Essentials in some different ways. Besides exporting songs or parts of songs, it’s also possible to export (bounce) audio from separate Mixer Channels, with or without the mixer settings. It’s also possible to export (bounce) individual Audio Clips. You can choose a variety of sample rates for the exported/bounced audio, and also various audio file formats and resolutions.

In addition to the regular audio export and bounce functions, you can drop a song or a part of a song to your Propellerhead account, where you can play it back and also use it in other Propellerhead applications. You can also share your uploaded songs with others, see “Drop to Propellerhead”.

Exporting Songs or parts of Songs

There are two ways of exporting the mix of all active sequencer tracks in a song:

•	The “Export Song as Audio File...” on the File menu allows you to save the mix from the start of the song to the End Position Marker.

•	The “Export Loop as Audio File...” on the File menu allows you to save the mix from the Left Locator to the Right Locator.

When you export a song or a Loop, the signals for the exported audio file are taken from Outputs 1 and 2 of the Hardware Interface device. Any other used outputs on the Hardware Interface will be disregarded.

To export the mix of an entire song, or a loop section of a song, proceed as follows:

1.	Make sure the End Position Marker is placed where you want the song to end or, if you want to export a Loop, make sure the Left and Right Locators are placed around the Loop you want to export.

Make sure you place the End Marker (when exporting a Song) or Right Locator (when exporting a Loop) so that any sustaining sounds are allowed to decay to silence. Otherwise, there will be an abrupt “cut” in the end of the exported audio file. This is probably not what you want.

2.	Select “Export Song as Audio File...” or “Export Loop as Audio File...” from the File menu.

The “Export Song as Audio File” or “Export Loop as Audio File” dialog appears.

3.	Choose location, File Name and File Format (AIFF or WAV) for the exported audio file at the bottom of the dialog and click “Save”:

Choose a file name and select file format.

4.	Select “Sample Rate”, “Bit Depth” (resolution) and “Dither” in the “Export Audio Settings” dialog and click “OK”:

If you are exporting at 16-bit Bit Depth you will have the option of applying Dither. Dither means that a type of noise is added to the digital signal to improve low level sound quality when exporting high resolution audio at a lower bit depth. Reason Essentials features a very sophisticated dithering algorithm with noise shaping.

Tick the “Dither” check box to improve the audio quality of exported audio at 16-bit resolution.

Select Sample Rate, Bit Depth and Dithering of the audio to be exported.

About Tempo data in exported audio files

In addition to the audio data, tempo data is automatically included in the exported audio file. The tempo data contains information about the song Tempo and any Tempo Automation used in the song/loop. If you import such an audio file into another Reason Essentials or Reason song, it will automatically stretch to fit the current song tempo.

If the section to be exported contains audio for which high-quality stretching hasn't already been done, this will be calculated before the actual export happens. When Reason Essentials performs high-quality stretching, the CALC indicator on the Transport Panel shows a progress bar:

The CALC indicator indicates when Reason Essentials performs high-quality stretching of audio.

•	If high-quality stretching is still in progress when you export your audio file, the Export dialog will show a progress bar as well.

As soon as the high-quality stretching is finished, the dialog will be closed.

Bouncing Mixer Channels

Bouncing Mixer Channels basically means “recording” the audio outputs from Audio Track Channels and/or Mix Channels and then automatically creating separate audio files. The audio files can then be saved to disk or placed on new Audio Tracks in your song. If you choose to bounce to disk, the audio files will be automatically saved to disk as separate audio files. If you instead choose to bounce to new tracks, the bounced audio files will be automatically placed on new Audio Tracks in the sequencer.

The “bounce to disk” option is ideal if you want to export your sequencer tracks separately for further processing in external applications. The “bounce to track” option is great if you, for example, have instrument tracks with lots of resource consuming FX etc. and therefore want to render them into audio to free up DSP resources in your song.

You can choose to bounce the Mixer Channels, either throughout the entire song, or only between the Left and Right Locators. You can also choose to bounce with or without mixer settings.

To bounce Mixer Channels proceed as follows:

1.	Select “Bounce Mixer Channels...” from the File menu.

The “Bounce Mixer Channels” dialog appears:

The “Bounce Mixer Channels” dialog.

When you open the “Bounce Mixer Channels” dialog, some channels in the Mixer Channels list might already be checked. This depends on what Mixer Channels (or their corresponding tracks or rack devices) were selected when you opened the dialog. The Master Section and FX Returns are never automatically checked when you open the dialog; you have to do that manually.

2.	Tick the check boxes for the Mixer Channels you want to bounce. Note that you can also bounce the Mixer Master Section and any FX Returns at the same time if you like.

The Mixer Channels in the list appear in the order they are placed in the Main Mixer, i.e. not necessarily in numerical or chronological order. The color tags in the list correspond to the Channel Strip colors in the Main Mixer. The Master Section is always listed as “Master Section” in the list and the eight FX Returns are listed as "FX 1 Return (<name>)", where <name> is the FX name shown on the label in the Main Mixer. Selecting FX Returns makes it possible to bounce reverbs and other Send FX you might be using in your song. The FX signal is tapped after FX Return Level/Pan/Mute if “Apply Mixer Settings = All” (see below). Otherwise, the signals will be taken at the FX Return inputs.

Click the “Check All” or “Uncheck All” buttons to activate or deactivate all checkboxes in one go.

3.	Select what channel settings you want to use (or not use) by clicking one of the radio buttons in the “Apply Mixer Settings” section.

Select “All” to bounce the selected Mixer Channels with all its settings, including any Insert FX, Level and Pan.

Since the Pan parameter is included, mono Mixer Channels will be bounced as stereo audio files.

Select “All except fader section” to bounce the selected Mixer Channels with all Mixer Channel settings, including any Insert FX, but excluding the Level, Pan, Stereo Width and Mute parameters of the Channel Strip.

Stereo Mixer Channels will be bounced as stereo audio files whereas mono Mixer Channels will be bounced as mono audio files. For the Master Section, this option means including Insert FX and the Master Compressor, but not the master fader.

Select “None” to bounce the selected Mixer Channels before the Mixer Channel Strips, without applying any Mixer Channel parameters or Insert FX.

Bounced files will be in stereo if there's any stereo material on the Audio Track (or, for a Mix Channel, if it's connected in stereo). Otherwise, the bounced audio files will be in mono.

4.	Tick the “Normalize” check box to adjust all bounced audio files so the maximum level is 0 dB.

Normalizing is useful to get good levels when you proceed to use the bounced audio files in another application, or to avoid clipping.

5.	Select what range to bounce in the “Range to Bounce” section.

Select “Song” to bounce the entire song (from the beginning of the song to the End Marker).

Select “Loop” to bounce the section between the Left and Right Locators.

Make sure you place the End Marker (when bouncing a Song) or Right Locator (when bouncing a Loop) so that any sustaining sounds are allowed to decay to silence. Otherwise, there will be an abrupt “cut” in the end of the bounced audio files.

6.	Select destination for the bounced Mixer Channel(s) in the “Bounce to:” section.

Select “New Tracks in Song” to bounce the Mixer Channels to new Audio Tracks in the song.

When “New Tracks in Song” is selected, the File Format settings in the dialog are disabled (as is the "Export Tempo Track (.MID)" setting). The audio will be rendered at the current song’s sample rate (i.e. what you have previously set up in the hardware audio interface), at full 32-bit float resolution.

Clicking OK will create a new Audio Track for each selected Mixer Channel, create an Audio Clip on each of these Tracks and render the Mixer Channel audio as a recording on a Comp Row in the Audio Clip.

The new Audio Tracks will get the names and colors of their corresponding (bounced) Mixer Channels. The Audio Clips will get the same color but will not be labeled (named).

The new recordings (on the Comp Rows) will get the name of their source Mixer Channels + "(Bounced)", e.g.
"Picked Guitar (Bounced)" if the bounced Mixer Channel’s name is “Picked Guitar”.

Selecting "Mute Original Channels" will mute all bounced Mixer Channels (those selected in the Mixer Channels list) after the bouncing. If there are automation lanes for their Mute buttons, their ON buttons will be turned off.

If you selected “None” in the “Apply mixer settings” section, you will be given the option to copy the original mixer channel settings to the destination channels. To do this, tick the “Copy original channel settings” box.

The “Mute Original Channels” setting does not affect the Master Section or the FX Returns.

Select “Audio Files on Disk” to bounce the Mixer Channels to audio files on disk.

When “Audio Files on Disk” is selected, the "Mute Original Channels" option in the dialog is automatically disabled.

Choose File Type, Sample Rate, Bit Depth and any Dither in the “File Format” section.

Clicking OK will bring up a Save dialog which allows you to select a folder, or create a new folder. Clicking Save will then create one audio file per selected Mixer Channel and place in a sub-folder named “Bounced <song name>”. All audio files will have the file type, sample rate and bit depth as defined in the “File Format” section.

The audio files will get the name of the bounced Mixer Channels, plus the File Type extension. If several selected Mixer Channels have the same name, an incremental number (starting with "-01") will be automatically added before the file extension.

The Song Tempo, and any Tempo Automation, is also included in the exported audio files. This means that if you import the audio files into another Reason Essentials or Reason Song document, they will automatically be stretched to the Song Tempo of that song.

If "Export Tempo Track (.MID)" is activated, the bounce function will also export a separate MIDI file containing the Song Tempo, and any Tempo Automation data. The MIDI file will have the name of the song, with the extension ".MID". This MIDI file can then be imported to the tempo automation lane in another Reason Essentials or Reason Song document, or to the tempo track in another DAW, to automatically set the song tempo and control any tempo automation in the sequencer.

Note that the “Export Tempo Track” option is available only if you have selected “Audio Files on Disk" in the “Bounce to:” section and “Song” in the “Range to Bounce:” section.

Bouncing Audio Clips

The “Bounce Clip to Disk” function

The “Bounce Clip to Disk” function becomes available when a single Audio Clip is selected (in Arrange Mode or Edit Mode). The function allows you to bounce single Audio Clips, after the Clip Level and Fades but without the Mixer Channel settings, to disk for further processing in an external application, for example. Do like this to bounce an audio clip to disk:

1.	Select an Audio Clip and choose “Bounce Clip to Disk...” from the Edit menu or context menu.

The “Bounce Clip As Audio File” dialog appears. It looks the same, and has the same functionality, as the “Export Song as Audio File” and “Export Loop as Audio File” dialogs.

2.	Choose location, File Name and File Format (AIFF or WAV) for the bounced audio clip at the bottom of the dialog and click “Save”.

(The default name in the dialog is the Clip name + extension, or (if there's no name label on the clip) the track name + extension.)

Choose a file name and select file format.

3.	Select “Sample Rate”, “Bit Depth” (resolution) and “Dither” in the “Export Audio Settings” dialog and click “OK”:

If you are exporting at 16-bit Bit Depth you will have the option of applying Dither. Dither means that a type of noise is added to the digital signal to improve low level sound quality when exporting high resolution audio at a lower bit depth. Reason Essentials features a new, and very sophisticated, dithering algorithm with noise shaping.

Tick the “Dither” check box to improve the audio quality of exported audio at 16-bit resolution.

Select Sample Rate, Bit Depth and Dithering of the audio clip to be bounced.

The exported audio file will also contain tempo data as described in “About Tempo data in exported audio files”.

About the “Bounce Clip to New Sample” function

You can also bounce an Audio Clip to a new Song Sample. You could then edit the sample and load into a sampler device for playback.

See “Bounce Clip(s) to New Sample(s)” in the “Audio Editing in the Sequencer” chapter for more details.

About the “Bounce Clip to New Recording” function

You can also bounce an Audio Clip to a new recording on an additional Comp Row in the Audio Clip. This is like a non-destructive “Flatten” operation. It will create a new recording from the clip output - ignoring Clip Level and Clip Fade In/Out settings. The recording will be placed on a new Comp Row at the top of the Comp Row list in the clip. The Audio Clip will then automatically switch to Single Mode.

See “Bounce Clip(s) to New Recording(s)” in the “Audio Editing in the Sequencer” chapter for more details.

About the “Bounce Clip to REX Loop” function

A Single Take clip, which is open for inline editing, features the function “Bounce Clip to REX Loop” on the Edit and context menu. This allows you to generate a REX loop out of the Single Take audio clip. The REX loop can then be used in a Dr Octo Rex device in Reason Essentials and/or be exported to disk.

See “Bounce Clip to REX Loop” in the “Audio Editing in the Sequencer” chapter for more details.

Drop to Propellerhead

A special audio export feature is the “Drop to Propellerhead” function. This lets you export a song, or part of a song (loop), in a proprietary Propellerhead format and automatically upload it to your Propellerhead account. The dropped (uploaded) audio can then be imported into other applications, such as the Propellerhead Take iOS app, and you can also share your exported files with others if you like.

Proceed as follows to export the mix of all active sequencer tracks of an entire song, or of a loop range of a song, and upload to Propellerhead:

The maximum allowed length of songs/loops dropped to Propellerhead is 10.00 minutes!

1.	Make sure the End Position Marker is placed where you want the song to end or, if you want to drop a Loop, make sure the Left and Right Locators are placed around the Loop you want to export.

Make sure you place the End Marker (when exporting a Song) so that any sustaining sounds are allowed to decay to silence. Otherwise, there will be an abrupt “cut” in the end of the uploaded audio file. This is probably not what you want.

If you plan to use your exported file as a Beat in the Propellerhead Take iOS app, there are some important things to keep in mind:

Any Tempo Automation and Time Signature Automation in the song/loop will be disregarded during import in Take. The file will open in Take, but without tempo indication (Free Tempo).

2.	Click the “Drop to Propellerhead” button to the right of the Audio Out meter on the transport panel (or select “Drop to Propellerhead” from the File menu):

The “Drop to Propellerhead” dialog appears:

The “Drop to Propellerhead” dialog.

3.	Select what range to export in the “Range to Export” section.

Select “Song” to export the entire song, from the beginning of the song to the End Marker.

Select “Loop” to export the range between the Left and Right Locators.

(If Loop mode is on in the sequencer, the “Range to Export” setting defaults to “Loop”.)

If you plan to use your exported Loop in other applications, for example as a backing Beat in the Propellerhead Take iOS app, you will want to make sure that your Loop loops smoothly. Therefore, always play back your Loop in Reason Essentials - with the sequencer in Loop mode - to make sure it sounds and loops the way you want.

4.	If you like you can rename the file to be exported, by typing in a new name in the Name box.

(The default Name is always the same as the Song name.)

5.	Select whether the exported file should be Unlisted or not.

An Unlisted piece of music is only available to those who have the direct link to its page. This means that other users cannot find the piece by browsing or checking Feeds from Propellerhead. However, you can still share your Unlisted music with your friends by giving them the direct link.

6.	Click the Drop button to export and upload your Song/Loop to your Propellerhead account.

If you are not already logged in to Propellerhead, the following dialog appears:

Log in with your Propellerhead User Name and Password.

The export begins and the file is uploaded to your Propellerhead account.

If you are running Reason Essentials using Internet Verification, you are already logged in and the file will be uploaded to your account without the Log in dialog.

In addition to the audio data, tempo data is automatically included in the exported audio file. The tempo data contains information about the song Tempo and any Tempo Automation used in the song/loop.

When the upload has finished, your web browser automatically launches and shows the web page for your exported file on Propellerhead. On this page you can listen to your song, share the link to others etc.