Mackie - T2 - User's Guide

Chapter 9: Exporting and Distributing Your Music

9.1 Exporting Your Music as an Audio File

If you wish to distribute your music, or even just listen to it in your car, you will first need to export your edit as an audio file.

To an export an edit as an audio file to be burned to a CD:

Open the edit by selecting the edit in the items list, and clicking the "open for editing" button in the properties panel.
With the edit open in the edit page, click the "export" button in the global controls section, and choose the "export audio file..." option.
You will need to set the path and file name for the exported audio, in the "file" field.
Choose an audio format.
Set the sample rate to 44100.
Make sure stereo is selected.
Set the sample size to 16 bit.
Enable the normalise option if you like.
You will probably want to disable all of the other options, although the "render at 1x play-speed" option should be used if you have plug-ins that misbehave when rendering at other than real time speeds.

A progress bar will show indicate that Tracktion is creating the audio file. After a few moments the export will complete. The resultant file will be located at the path specified in the "file" field. You can test the exported audio file by opening it in a media player such as QuickTime or Windows Media Player.

9.2 Burning Your Music to CD, or Creating and MP3

If you've read this far you should be well on your way to writing and producing songs in Tracktion. The only remaining question then is how to make your music available for others to hear and/or purchase.

The two most popular means of distribution at this time (other than a record deal) are the venerable audio CD or Internet download. Both approaches have the advantage of being cheap and easy, so since this manual can't tell you how to land a record deal, let's have a look at what is involved in burning audio CDs and uploading music to the Internet.

To write CDs

At the most basic level you simply need a CD or DVD drive capable of burning audio CDs. Most modern PC and Mac computers come as standard with such drives. Typically, software for burning CDs will also be present. If your drive came without software however, or if you are just looking for an easy interface that is the common to both Mac and PC, then read the "iTunes" section below.

To distribute over the Internet

A good way of reaching a wide audience is to distribute music over the Internet. To get started you will need either some Web space, or alternatively an account with an on-line music hosting company. Whilst having your own Web-site will give you the maximum flexibility over how your music is presented, not to mention a place to post news about live performances or merchandise, using a dedicated music hosting company presents a far simpler approach. A Web search for "web hosting" or "music hosting" will provide you with some places to start seeking suitable providers.

Once you have found a place to host your music on-line, you will need to look into audio compression software. Audio files tend to be large, and ill-suited to Internet distribution. A typical audio file will take few hours to download over a dial-up Internet connection, and even with DSL or cable Internet, the download time is not insignificant. The solution is to compress your audio with one of the many MP3 encoders. These encoders will reduce the file size to something in the region of a tenth of its original size, without too great a compromise on quality.

Burning audio CDs, and creating mp3s, with Apple's iTunes

If you are looking for software capable of burning CDs and converting audio files to mp3, then Apple's iTunes software may be just what you are searching for. It comes as standard with Macs, but PC users can download it, completely free of charge, from: http://www.apple.com/itunes/

To burn a CD using iTunes:

Add your songs to the play-list - (select "Add File to Play-list" from the "File" menu).
Create a new play-list - (select "New Play-list" from the "File" menu).
Drag your songs into the new play-list and arrange them in the order you would like them to appear on the CD (Fig. 9.2.1).
Make sure the play-list is selected and click the "Burn Disc" button.
iTunes will begin burning your tracks to CD.

To convert songs to MP3:

Select the "Preferences" option from the "Edit" menu ("iTunes menu on the Mac) (Fig. 9.2.2).
Click "Importing" to edit the settings for iTunes encoding method.
If iTunes is not currently set to import material using mp3, then select "MP3 Encoder".
Choose your desired compression rate for the "Setting" field. Generally 128kbps is considered the best compromise between quality and file size.
Approve any changes you have made by clicking "OK".
Add your songs to the play-list (select "Add File to Play-list" from the "File" menu).
Select you songs and click the "Convert Selection to MP3" option from the "Advanced" menu.
After a few moments the conversion will be complete and your tracks will be in MP3 format.

9.3 A Few Final Words

Hopefully, this user's guide has given you a feel for how powerful and easy to use your new sequencing software is. There are a great many more features and tools available in Tracktion that simply could not be covered in this user's guide. One of Tracktion's great strengths though, is the ease with which it can be learned. As such, we are confident that you are already in good stead to start making great music.

We want to ensure that you can get the most out of Tracktion, however, so there is also a full reference manual in Adobe Acrobat format. This manual explains the advanced tools that were not covered in this guide. It also provides some useful walk-throughs for common recording and mixing scenarios. Finally, because it is a reference manual, it details every feature and option within Tracktion. So, if you find yourself wondering what a particular option does, the reference guide is where to find the answer.

If you ever get stuck, you can always visit the Tracktion forum on the Mackie website (http://forums.mackie.com/). There you will receive help from Mackie staff, and other users.

Tracktion has a thriving user community at the Raw Material Software forum (http://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=22). There you will find many enthusiastic Tracktion users.

All that is left to say at this point is that we at Mackie, and Raw Material Software, hope you enjoy using Tracktion as much as we enjoyed creating it.