KVR Audio

mwa · Post by **mwa** » Wed Aug 25, 2004 12:05 pm

I'm trying to export something from Cubase SE to mp3, but the mp3 file that it creates is like 200k and it doesn't have any sound or play.
iTunes will open the file, but won't play anything, and winamp gives me an error when I try to open the file (I forget what the error message is and I'm at work right now..)

It seems I also have this problem when I try to export to WAV as well.

I *think* I've done everything I need to.. the manual is sparce at best with the details on this.

Everything sounds fine when I play it in cubase, I have my L and R markers around my song, and I checked the Read automation thing on all the tracks I want to play (the manual suggested somthing about that..). When I export I set the mp3 settings to 128kb, stereo, and check the effect and other settings to export everything.

Any ideas or help will be much appreciated!!
Thanks,
elp...

bluedad · Post by **bluedad** » Wed Aug 25, 2004 12:07 pm

when you export you have to set your indicators to set the length of what you're trying to export.
other than that not being set right, I'm not sure then.

mwa · Post by **mwa** » Wed Aug 25, 2004 12:16 pm

those are the green L and R things, right?

I have the L and the beginning and the R at the end..

bluedad · Post by **bluedad** » Wed Aug 25, 2004 12:50 pm

EyeLikeP00 wrote:those are the green L and R things, right?

I have the L and the beginning and the R at the end..

yes

(I'm sorry, you mentioned this in you initial post..I'm not quite awake this morning

)

DevonB · Post by **DevonB** » Wed Aug 25, 2004 1:04 pm

Since Cubase exports a bunch of formats, what about things besides mp3? Wav? Aiff? Ogg? Just wondering if the mp3.dll file that does the encoding/decoding is corrupt or not. You could always try reinstalling Cubase too.

Devon

slartibartfast · Post by **slartibartfast** » Wed Aug 25, 2004 1:28 pm

This might be stating the bleeding obvious, but are the tracks contained between your L and R markers either Audio tracks or MIDI tracks for VST instruments?

Coz if they aren't either of these (e.g. MIDI tracks for external sound sources) then Cubase won't find anything to convert to .mp3 - you would need to record your external sound sources as Audio tracks first.

bluedad · Post by **bluedad** » Wed Aug 25, 2004 1:33 pm

sdunn1110 wrote:This might be stating the bleeding obvious, but are the tracks contained between your L and R markers either Audio tracks or MIDI tracks for VST instruments?

Coz if they aren't either of these (e.g. MIDI tracks for external sound sources) then Cubase won't find anything to convert to .mp3 - you would need to record your external sound sources as Audio tracks first.

yes. this was the first thing I suggested.
(well, the only thing I suggested)

slartibartfast · Post by **slartibartfast** » Wed Aug 25, 2004 1:58 pm

bluedad wrote:
sdunn1110 wrote:This might be stating the bleeding obvious, but are the tracks contained between your L and R markers either Audio tracks or MIDI tracks for VST instruments?

Coz if they aren't either of these (e.g. MIDI tracks for external sound sources) then Cubase won't find anything to convert to .mp3 - you would need to record your external sound sources as Audio tracks first.
yes. this was the first thing I suggested.
(well, the only thing I suggested)

Sorry - I didn't read that into your first post - I got the bit about the markers, but I know when I first tried exporting from Cubase, I had a similar problem to EyeLikeP00, because all my sound sources were external sound modules, and even though the markers were set correctly, the only tracks I had in the Song were MIDI tracks for these external sound sources, and so no sound was exported.

A quick browse of the 'net brought the following suggestion: (from http://www.auxbuss.com/kbase/cubase_sx/ ... sx_faq.php)

Audio mixdown - Why is the result empty in audio mixdown?
This is often because the left and right locators are incorrectly positioned; usually they are the wrong way around.

Audio Mixdown produces the same result as that ouput through the selected buss during playback

For audio to be included in the result of Audio Mixdown channels must be:

Audio, VSTi, Rewire or a Group channel
not muted
routed to the bus selected for audio mixdown

In addition, only the area between the left and right locators is rendered to the resulting audio file. If the right locator is positioned before the left locator on the timeline, then nothing will be rendered.

mwa · Post by **mwa** » Wed Aug 25, 2004 3:20 pm

DevonB: I tried exporting a wav, and I got the same thing.. a file around 1 meg, but wouldn't play or would give me an error.

sdunn1110: All my tracks are midi with vsts. They're all enabled, and all open too (if that makes any difference).

bluedad: I'll double check my markers, and make sure they're the right way, but I'm pretty sure theyare. The export takes it's time, and the progress bar chugs along like it's actually doing something. When done it sounds like it's played a note from each of my tracks, sort of a blahhh thing in some different sounds.. dunno. I figure that was a good thing..

sdunn1110: point number 3 in your last post: "routed to the bus selected for audio mixdown " what the deuce does that mean?? Maybe I'm not doing that?

and thanks again guys, this website is awesome!

slartibartfast · Post by **slartibartfast** » Wed Aug 25, 2004 3:51 pm

EyeLikeP00 wrote:sdunn1110: point number 3 in your last post: "routed to the bus selected for audio mixdown " what the deuce does that mean?? Maybe I'm not doing that?

This may not be an issue in Cubase SE, but SX has a few more audio mixdown options - check your VST Connections (Devices-VST Connections) and click on the Outputs tab to check that you have a bus set up and that you have active device ports in use for this bus. You probably will, otherwise you wouldn't have heard anything playing at all. The default bus that Cubase sets up is BUS 1.

Then, when you perform the Audio Mixdown (File-Export-Audio Mixdown), you may find that there is a section in the dialog box called Outputs, and in this area, there is a dropdown box that allows you to select what output bus you want to Mixdown (there is in SX, at least) - make sure you have selected the appropriate output bus in this dropdown box. You may also want to check the html help that comes with Cubase on routing audio to and from busses - in the index look for Routing - Audio to and from busses.

I hope this helps - good luck!

bluedad · Post by **bluedad** » Wed Aug 25, 2004 7:09 pm

[quote="sdunn1110Audio mixdown - Why is the result empty in audio mixdown?
This is often because the left and right locators are incorrectly positioned; usually they are the wrong way around.[/quote]
yes, this has happened to me before (usually trying to record something)
one way to be sure is to look at the (ack, forget what it's called, the moveable bar with record, stop etc buttons) it shows where the l and r locators are. I usually set mine up here.

mwa · Post by **mwa** » Wed Aug 25, 2004 10:54 pm

Ok.. so my markers are set up correctly (L at 1 and R at 71), and my output seems to be going to bus 1.

When I did the export, I didn't have any option called outputs in my Audio Mixdown dialog. However, I did go to the mixer before doing the export, and I selected the bus1 for Read Automation. I don't know if that's supposed to do anything, but I thought I'd givt it a shot - it seemed to do *something* because the export took 2 and a half minutes, and my resulting mp3 was nearly 3 megs.. but still no sound.

When I play it in winamp, I get the error that I don't have the correct DirectSound driver.

Also, the html help doesn't have any info on mp3 exporting.. (I'm assuming that comes with the mp3 export patch - which is another can of worms!

)

Anyways.. I'm going out to eat, so I'll try whatever suggestions you guys might have in a couple of hours.

Thanks in advance!

bluedad · Post by **bluedad** » Wed Aug 25, 2004 11:09 pm

what about when you export wav? if that exports ok, then, as devon said, there's something wrong with the mp3 dll or codec, whatever...

slartibartfast · Post by **slartibartfast** » Thu Aug 26, 2004 1:34 am

EyeLikeP00 wrote:
When I play it in winamp, I get the error that I don't have the correct DirectSound driver.

Sounds to me like you may have some sort of problem with your soundcard setup, and this may also be the root of your problems with Audio Mixdown. I'm not a real techie, though, so I'm not sure what you could do to verify this.

One other question - when you try to play your .mp3, do you close Cubase first, or do you have Cubase still open? There is some option in Cubase (not sure what it is called, and I am at work, so don't have Cubase in front of me right now, but it is in the Audio setup somewhere) that releases the soundcard for use by other applications if Cubase isn't using it - it may be that the reason you aren't getting playback is that Cubase is still using your soundcard, and Winamp can't access it at the same time.

EyeLikeP00 wrote: Also, the html help doesn't have any info on mp3 exporting.. (I'm assuming that comes with the mp3 export patch - which is another can of worms! )

I'm not aware of this patch, but in Cubase SX, the html help does cover this - but it is given a weird title - from memory, Export Audio Mixdown or similar

mwa · Post by **mwa** » Thu Aug 26, 2004 1:47 am

it works!!!

sdunn - it was that i still had cubase open!! i'm listening to it right now, and it's working perfectly in itunes. hahaha.. what a bizzare little problem!

as for the mp3 update patch.. i wasn't aware of it either.. until i had installed and used cubase SE and tried to export to an mp3. it says NOWHERE anything about this!!

as it is, cubase se is limited to 20 mp3 exports, and if you want more, you need to buy the mp3 update. mind you, it's only 16 bucks (cnd), but still.. that's rediculous that i would need to get that functionality seperately.

mp3 export from cubase se question