Exporting Audio from Reason - part 1 (Stereo Mix)

As you start finishing your songs and are happy with the arrangement, the mix, etc., you can start thinking about Exporting your songs as audio files.

What is Exporting, and why do you need to do it?

Well, right now your songs are Reason files (*.rns). They only play back in Reason. You can't burn them to a CD, you can't listen to them in iTunes, you can't upload them to Myspace/imeem/etc. You can only open them on a computer that has Reason on it.

In order for you to do all the things I just mentioned, you need to convert the song into in audio file. Doing this is super simple, but before you do it, you really need to be aware of a couple of things. The main one is that you need to make sure that nothing is clipping.

Clipping is when something is distorting digitally. It happens when the volume of your track(s) is louder than the computer can handle. Usually it is really obvious and sounds like things are crackling in an ugly way. Sometimes, though, you can't immediately hear it, so you don't do anything about it until it's too late. This is now getting to be a special problem in Reason because the Mastering Suite Combinator is hiding the clipping from you.

In general, the way you avoid clipping/distortion is to make sure that none of your tracks' volume levels are getting all the way to the top of the meter. To make a track not clip, simply turn down the volume.

However, if you do turn a track down, pay close attention to what is happening to your overall mix. You may have to adjust the other tracks' volume levels to keep things balanced the way you want.

Once you're happy with the mix and you've checked to make sure there's no clipping going on, you're ready to start exporting.

To Export the whole song as a stereo mix, follow these steps:

1. Make any final adjustments to volume levels.
   
2. In the Sequencer Window, make sure the E is set to just past the end of your song. This tells Reason where the end of the song is.
   
3. Go to File>Export Song as Audio File.
4. Name the file. For this class, use this format: (song name)_(your name)_(date)
5. Choose the location where you want this saved. Please don't take this for granted, or you may never find your file again!
   
6. Hit Save.
   
7. Choose the resolution of your audio. Unless you have a specific reason, for now let's just do:

• Sample rate: 44,100 Hz
• Bit depth: 16

OK, so that's how you do a Stereo Mix of your stuff.