Avid Xpress Pro / Media Composer and mixing down audio
I find it very important to mix down my audio tracks when I am done editing my sequence and I am ready for output. Not only does this keep my audio from being moved it also allows me to put all of audio onto one drive and assures me smooth playback. This is a very simple process that you may want to put into your workflow.
To mix down several edited audio tracks to one or two audio tracks:
1. Load a sequence into the Composer monitor.
2. Click the Track buttons in the Track Selector panel to select the audio tracks you want to mix down.
3. Mark an IN point and an OUT point at the start and end of the material you want to mix down.
If you do not mark the section of audio you want to mix down, the system mixes down all of the selected audio tracks.
4. Select Clip > Audio Mixdown.
The Audio Mixdown dialog box opens. The top of the dialog box displays the source audio tracks and the start and end timecodes for the section of audio you selected to mix down.
5. Do one of the following:
Select Mono and select the target track to which you want to mix down the audio.
Select Stereo and select two target tracks for the mixed-down audio.
6. Select a destination drive and a destination bin.
The destination drive is the media drive where the system stores the media files for the mixed-down audio.
7. Click OK.
The audio is mixed down and the Avid system displays the new master clip in the bin.
This is also very useful to save hard drive space. If you have no need to edit the original content again you can now delete the un-mixdowned audio and just save the mixdown version, just make sure you will not to edit the original!
