Export Multitracks to one file

Getting Stuff Done How do I .... ?
#1

I want a file that I can play back in an app like VLC that has at least three channels. I want to use it for a band that uses backing tracks for the drummer when he can’t be there.
I would like
track 1 : Drums L
track 2 : Drums R
track 3 : Click Track
So I can send drums to FOH and the clicks only to in ears and F/B.

Obviously I can’t load an Ardour session for every song so I need to be able to play it from VLC or similar, so separate .WAV files are useless for this, they have to be in a container.

When I export audio in Ardour I only get the choice of Out 1 or Out 2
I would like to see → choose the number of channels (this option is there)
If I choose 4 channels then I should also be able to see Out 3 and Out 4 coming up as options when I route the inputs to channels.

What file and codec will enable me to export multracks in one file?

#2

I do not believe Ardour does this (Though for some reason in the back of my head I think it used to be possible so I may be mistaken). EDIT: See @x42 's answer below.

That being said you could have a post-export script that muxes the files together into an appropriate file for this purpose. Or, depending on what hardware you are playing back on, I would always encourage using something like QLab for playback where you can have multiple files play in sync as needed.

Seablade

#3

Out 1/2 here are the outputs of the respective tracks (usually left/right). Since tracks have panners, each of your three tracks has two outputs.

In your case you can simply ignore “Out2” because everything is mono to begin with, and you can leave the panner of each track alone (or bypass it):

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In above example:

  • File channel 1 (column) is fed by data from Drum L’s first output (left channel after track’s panner)
  • File channel 2 is fed by data from Drum R’s first output
  • File channel 3 is fed by data from the Click Track’s second output (right channel after track’s panner)

All that formats that Ardour support allow for 3 channels, but you likely want WAV for FLAC.

2 Likes
#4

And as I said, I could be wrong and definitely was. Thanks for the correction @x42

Seablade