Rendering a surround project creates six mono files (AIFF, ATRAC, WAV/W64, or PCA) or a single 5.1-channel file (AC-3, WAV/W64, WMA, and WMV) that your authoring application can use to create DVD-Video or 5.1-channel music projects.

Before rendering your surround project, check your surround authoring application’s documentation to determine its required audio format. Some encoders require a specific low-pass filter cutoff frequency and rolloff, and your encoder may require that no filter be applied before encoding. Use the Audio tab of the Project Properties dialog to configure a low-pass filter.

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1. From the File menu, choose Render As to display the Render As dialog.

2. Choose a drive and folder from the Save in drop-down list, or use the browse window to locate the folder where you want to save your file.

3. Type a name in the File name box.

4. Choose a file type from the Save as type drop-down list.

5. From the Template drop-down list, choose the multiple mono template, or choose an appropriate 5.1-channel template if the selected file type supports it.

Tips:

• When you render a 5.1 surround project to AIFF (.aif), Perfect Clarity Audio (.pca), Wave64 (.w64), or Wave (.wav) formats, you can save each of the surround master busses to a separate file by choosing the multiple mono setting from the Template drop-down list. For example, if you’d typed My Film.wav in the File name box, the following files would be rendered: My Film Right.wav, My Film Right Surround.wav, My Film LFE.wav, My Film Left.wav, My Film Left Surround.wav, and My Film Center.wav.

• When you render a 5.1 surround project to WAV or WAV64 format using the 48,000 Hz, 16 Bit, 5.1, PCM or 48,000 Hz, 32 Bit, 5.1, PCM template, you can create a single 5.1 channel file. The rendered file contains channel-mapping information so that will preserve surround panning information when adding these files to 5.1 surround projects.

  Legacy Sony applications (and third-party applications) may not be able to read these 5.1-channel files. In this case, you can render a single six-channel file by selecting the Enable multichannel mapping check box and creating a channel mapping using the Surround Master outputs.

  For more information about rendering multichannel audio and setting up multichannel mapping, please see Rendering Multichannel Audio Files.

6. Select the Render loop region only check box if you want to save only the portion of the project that is contained within the Loop Region. Loop Playback does not need to be selected for this option to work.

7. If the selected file type supports it, you can select the Save project markers with media file check box to include markers, regions, and command markers in the rendered media file. If the information cannot be saved in your media file, it will create an .sfl file (using the same base name as your media file).

8. Select the Render using networked computers check box if you want to queue multiple renders on a single computer or to harness the power of those other computers to speed up your rendering times. For more information, see Network Rendering.

9. Click the Save button. A dialog is displayed to show rendering progress.

   When rendering is complete, click the Open button to play the file with its associated player, or click Open Folder to open the folder where you saved the file.

Rendering Your 5.1-Channel Mix