7 minute multitrack session (5.1) taking 9-15 HOURS to export

[scubashane91]

Hello all,

As the title states, I have a session opened with 9 tracks + Master, all of a duration just under 7 minutes. Exporting time starts around 25 hours, and within 30 seconds it settles to any where from 9 hours, all the way up to 15 hours.

I recorded these with higher quality settings, so I expected longer loading and export times. Normally they take 1-3 minutes to export.
I should mention that I'm definitely still learning how to use the software and what to fully expect of it, but I'm not a complete beginner with it.

I have 9 mono tracks, 48000 hz 24 bit wav.
In the session, I think the mono files are in a stereo track to allow for panning automations.

I put them into a 5.1 channel session, 48000 hz 32 (float).
I recently got a surround sound system, and thought it would be fun to try and mix for it for the first time.

Most of the tracks have some effect on them, two of them are heavily Automated.
Effects used are mainly EQ, Hardlimiters, and compressors. Automations are for studio reverb and chorus used on 3 tracks.

Work-arounds I've tried in attempt to shorten the export times:
     - Exporting to a lower hz (44100)
     - Lower bit (24 & 16 bit)
     - Mp3 (320 & 256 kbps)
     - Export to Stereo
     - Bounce each track individually
     - Reduced the bit depth of source files for tracks
     - Updating Audition
     - Updating my iMac
               - 3.5 GHz Intel Core i7,
               - 16 GB 1600 MHz DDR3
               - 1 Tb HD (50gb free)
               - macOS High Sierra
     - Saving to brand new 2 tb external harddrive

     - Increasing to maximum allowance of RAM usage for Audition (11gb of 16)
     - Complaining
     - Hoping
     - Cursing

So far, nothing has gotten the export time under 8 hours. I've been thinking it shouldn't take more than 20 minutes, maybe an hour, and even those would be surprising.

So is this normal? Are my expectations way off, or is there something I can do to either fix and/or avoid this problem in the future? I've definitely been looking for if I had done something wrong when setting up the session, but that would really require more instruction than I've come across. 

I would really appreciate any input and advice!

Thanks

[SteveG_AudioMasters_]

I'm afraid I don't have a definitive answer to your question, but I do have a couple of suggestions to make. The first one is that hoping and cursing aren't going to work (you've already discovered that), but the one thing that's generally best to remember in these situations is that you shouldn't get cross - you should get even. And to this end you have to approach these sort of things from a methodical POV.

The thing that stands out to me about your list is the tracks that have heavy automation. So how do you find out if they're causing the bottle-neck? As an experiment, remove them from the mix-down and see if it speeds up dramatically (and you can do this with any other track as well). If it does, then you know that these tracks will need pre-rendering before you do the final mix. Altering the bit depth and sample rate should make no difference at all; that's very unlikely to have anything to do with this.

Another possibility is that somehow the session file has got itself corrupted. Once again, a simple experiment will suffice to give you a clue; dump all your source files into another session and see if this renders faster. Another option that you may not have realised exists (if you're lucky) is that Suitespot will offer to have a look at your session file for you - if he does, then accept; he knows more about them than anybody else outside Adobe does. If there's anything wrong with it, he'll find it.

[SuiteSpot]

SteveG's suggestions are sound and should help to isolate the issue.  I would also suggest dropping the tracks into a stereo session and try that. That said I will be happy to look at your sesx file

Email: info at aatranslator dot com dot au

[ryclark]

Basically if it all plays back OK in realtime from the Multitrack then it shouldn't really take any longer than that to mixdown/export. so there must be something gone very weird for your export times. Are the effects that you are using all Audition's internal ones or do you have any third party VST plugins added to your session?

[scubashane91]

@ryclark
That's what I was thinking! I work with a guy who's recorded and mixed for 10+ years, and never heard of export times like that for what I'm doing. I'm glad everyone here is saying the same thing. I'm glad everyone is being so helpful, in general!

I'm using Auditions built-in effects, no third party vst plugins! It plays back fine, and I've been happy with the results, which led to frustration when I couldn't export to share with my bandmates.

[scubashane91]

Thank you so much SteveG! I will try your suggestions, and see if that fixes it! My last resort was put the files into a new session, specifically a Stereo session.  If that or any other of the suggestions doesn't fix it, then I'll definitely let SuiteSpot take a look at it. I'll mess with it tonight and will be back in touch as soon as I have some definitive results, or lack thereof.

[scubashane91]

@SteveG @SuiteSpot @ryclark

Hey guys, I just noticed what might be the culprit.

The duration of the session says 18:27:03:03. The files in the session are only 6:54.3, so somehow 18.5 hours were added to it.

I recall when I opened the session, the view was way off; I was having to side-scroll and minimize horizontally a lot to find the waveforms for the tracks. I ignored that after I began mixing, and I haven't thought to look at the duration in the file info pane. Whats the best way to trim off unused time in a session?

[SuiteSpot]

Make a backup of your sesx file then...

1. Open your session and change the timeline to be in samples

2. Make a note of the value which would be a little past the end of the session (the length it should be)

3. Exit your session

4. Open your sesx file in a text editor (eg Notepad)

5. The 5th line down should be something like this

  <session appBuild="11.0.0.0" appVersion="11.0" audioChannelType="stereo" bitDepth="16" duration="10768237" sampleRate="44100">

6. Edit the duration value to be the value noted at step 2

7. Save then sesx file and exit

8. Reopen the session in Audition

[Gregory25293544h3hc]

Hi SuiteSpot,

I'm having exactly the same issue: a 28 minute Multitrack session is showing 11 hours +.  I found a small clip which was inserted at the end, tried a Ripple Delete for the dead space, and deleted the errant clip.  I have tried the steps above by editing the SESX file, but no change in the duration when I reopen the session.  Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

[Gregory25293544h3hc]

Problem solved:  I just highlighted all of my clips and did the Multitrack Mixdown on the Selected Clips.  Dropped the MP3 file from 240MB to 10MB!  I guess the silence was deafening. 

[scubashane91]

It took a little over 2 minutes to export! haha. Wow.

Thanks guys! I really really appreciate it. Thankfully not a drawn-out solution, but I definitely wouldn't have come across it with out all of you helping. I worked all day, and saw I had replies, and now this has made my week. 

Again, you guy's saints. It's so great to have help like that.

Have a great rest of your weekend!

[SuiteSpot]

Thanks for the feedback

BTW We are a little bit ahead of the rest - It's 10:15am Monday here in Sydney LOL

[scubashane91]

Haha dang! Well in that case, you helped out a guy across the globe (Missouri, USA) nearly first thing on a Monday. Keep at it!

[SuiteSpot]

Excellent and good luck with your project

[ryclark]

Yes it is an annoying fact that occasionally by accident some tiny slither of an audio clip lands up way out of the expected time of the Multitrack session. Sometimes if you go to the incorrectly set end time of the session and zoom in you may find the unwanted clip. Deleting it will then bring back the session duration to the expected length.

[SteveG_AudioMasters_]

I have to say, though, that this is why I always export or mix down a time selection - don't run into this problem if you do that.