Apple Final Cut Pro 7 - Manual (Page 1453)

More About Audio Render Options
Two of the audio render options create render files in very specific ways.
• Item Level: Renders the audio items that need to be resampled to match the sample
rate of the sequence, as well as audio items with filters applied, as item-level render
files. Audio mixing is still done in real time, and mixing performance improves because
audio resampling and audio effects no longer consume real-time processing resources.
• Mixdown: Renders all the audio in a sequence to a single group of render files, one for
each audio output assigned to the selected sequence. This can improve playback
performance by eliminating the need for Final Cut Pro to do any real-time mixing or
audio effects playback. The Mixdown command is a nondestructive operation and
doesn’t change any of the audio clips in the sequence.
When you choose either the Item Level option in the Render Selection and Render All
submenus or the Mixdown command in the Render Only submenu, audio is rendered at
the highest quality regardless of the setting chosen in the Audio Playback Quality pop-up
menu in the General tab of the User Preferences window.
Using the Mixdown Command
Sometimes, you may have so many audio items edited into a sequence or so many filters
applied that rendering the items in your sequence doesn’t ensure real-time playback. In
this case, use the Mixdown command in the Render Only submenu of the Sequence
menu to render all audio in a sequence prior to playback or output to tape.
To mix down audio in a sequence
1 Select a sequence in the Timeline.
2 With the Timeline or Canvas active, choose Sequence > Render Only > Mixdown (or press
Command-Option-R).
A multichannel QuickTime audio file is rendered to disk so that the sequence can now
play back the render file instead of all the individual audio tracks.
Note: This command has no effect on how your clips are edited. All audio clips remain
on their own tracks in the sequence just as they were before. The Mixdown command
simply consolidates the audio in an audio render file for playback.
Once you’ve applied mixdown audio to a sequence, the Mixdown menu item is dimmed,
and a checkmark appears next to it to show that the audio in the sequence has been
rendered as a preview file. If you move any audio clips afterward, the preview file is
discarded, and the Mixdown command again becomes available in the Render Only
submenu.
1453 Chapter 85 Rendering and Video Processing Settings