Mix & render doesn't account for 'mute'

Audacity Help Forum Windows
1

Hello.

Mix and Render function doesn’t respect mute buttons. That means that I have to hand select all tracks I want to mix every time.

Is this a bug? If not what’s the rationale behind it?

Audacity 2.1.0 - Windows 7

2

But File > Export does?

Koz

3

Thanks for your reply.

Yes, export does respect ‘mute’ so what’s the diagnosis?

4

The forum is definitely working as it should.
Koz

5

And what about the answer for my question?

6

You have two choices and it is arguable either way.

If you don’t want to include a track in Mix and Render, why would you select it?
For example, if I want to mix tracks 4, 5 and 7 of a 20 track project, why would I select the other tracks?
In this case, I would just select tracks 4, 5 and 7, and I don’t need to change the solo/mute status of any tracks.

It could be a “preference” option, if there were sufficient demand from users.

7

What makes you assume I select anything? I have no tracks selected and then I simply click on “Mix and Render to a new track” and it selects all tracks automatically and that’s perfectly logical and exactly the way it should work.

8

That’s because of the Preference option “Select all audio in project, if none selected” (In “Edit > Preferences > Tracks”).

9

Since my post takes forever to be approved I’ll assume it was somehow lost and repost

I’m still trying to see any coherent logic behind the way 'mute" buttons work. The explanation you gave earlier should apply equally to both exporting as well as mixing and rendering yet somehow it doesn’t.

10

30 minutes is not “forever”.

11

Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but on what do you base that assumption?

12

By the way, please be aware that this forum is “staffed” by volunteers in their spare time.

13

Export can be for selected tracks, as well as for all.

I think it could be confusing for some users if effects worked on selected tracks as now, but render worked on unmuted tracks.

I can see your point, but render is only a visual operation. As long as you are only using Mute (not Solo) you can hear what will be exported without rendering. So the question may be, why do you need to render?


Gale