Rendering Multichannel Audio Files

If you want to render a single audio file with multiple audio channels, you can render to one of the following formats:

WAV/WAV64 (for information about rendering 5.1 channel WAV/WAV64 files, please see Rendering your 5.1 surround project)
AVI
Material Exchange Format (MXF)

NOTE MXF files require a video stream.

Render Format	Number of channels
DV MXF	Always contains 4 audio channels. You can use the Channels drop-down list on the Audio tab of the Custom Template dialog to choose how many channels will be filled with audio. For example, if you choose 2 from the Channels drop-down list, the rendered file will contain 4 audio channels: two channels will contain audio, and two channels will contain silence. For more information, see Custom rendering templates
IMX MXF	Always contains 8 audio channels. You can use the Channels drop-down list on the Audio tab of the Custom Template dialog to choose how many channels will be filled with audio. For example, if you choose 2 from the Channels drop-down list, the rendered file will contain 8 audio channels: two channels will contain audio, and six channels will contain silence.
HD MXF	Can contain 2 or 4 audio channels. You can use the Channels drop-down list on the Audio tab of the Custom Template dialog to choose how many channels will be rendered. For example, if you choose 2 from the Channels drop-down list, the rendered file will contain only 2 audio channels.

Render Format

Number of channels

DV MXF

Always contains 4 audio channels.

You can use the Channels drop-down list on the Audio tab of the Custom Template dialog to choose how many channels will be filled with audio. For example, if you choose 2 from the Channels drop-down list, the rendered file will contain 4 audio channels: two channels will contain audio, and two channels will contain silence. For more information, see Custom rendering templates

IMX MXF

Always contains 8 audio channels.

You can use the Channels drop-down list on the Audio tab of the Custom Template dialog to choose how many channels will be filled with audio. For example, if you choose 2 from the Channels drop-down list, the rendered file will contain 8 audio channels: two channels will contain audio, and six channels will contain silence.

HD MXF

Can contain 2 or 4 audio channels.

You can use the Channels drop-down list on the Audio tab of the Custom Template dialog to choose how many channels will be rendered. For example, if you choose 2 from the Channels drop-down list, the rendered file will contain only 2 audio channels.

NOTE WMV/WMA, AC-3, and ATRAC support multichannel surround formats; channel mapping is not supported.

Create your project.
In the Mixing Console window, add a bus for each channel (or channel pair) you want to include in your rendered file.

For example, if you wanted to create a six-channel .wav file, you could set up your project with three or six busses. If you use three busses, the left and right channels of each bus will be saved to a separate channel. If you use six busses, you can save the mono downmix from each bus as a separate channel.

For more information, see Adding audio busses

NOTE If you're working with a 5.1 surround project, you can map the six channels from the Surround Master bus to six output channels.

Assign tracks to busses to map the audio in your project to the desired channel. For more information, see Assigning tracks to busses
From the File menu, choose Render As to display the Render As dialog.
Use the Output File controls in the Render As dialog to choose the location where you want to use to save your file.
Select the Enable multichannel rendering check box.
Click the Channels button if you want to map the busses in your project to channels in the rendered file. If you don't specify a channel mapping, VEGAS Pro will not render a multichannel file.
1. In the Channel Mapping dialog, select the checkbox for each bus you want to include in the rendered file. Each stereo bus will be saved to two channels in the rendered file. If you want to save a bus to a single channel, select the (Mono downmix) checkbox for that bus.
2. If you want to change order of the busses in the channel mapping, select the bus and click the Move Up or Move Down button.
3. Click OK to close the Channel Mapping dialog and return to the Render As dialog.
  
  TIP Channel mapping is also available when printing to tape from the timeline, rendering to a new track, and exporting video to an XDCAM disc.
Use the Output Format controls to choose the type of file you want to create.

The Output Format box displays the file types and formats you can use to render your file. You can double-click headings (or click the arrow buttons) to expand or collapse lists of available templates. Click a template to select it and use that format for rendering, or select a template and click the Customize Template button to modify the template's settings.

If you choose Default Template when rendering to .wav, .w64, or .avi, the number of channels will match the number of channels specified in the Channel Mapping dialog.

NOTE If you choose a rendering template that specifies more channels than you have set up in the Channel Mapping dialog, the additional channels will be rendered as silence.

If you choose a template that specifies fewer channels than you have set up in the Channel Mapping dialog, the setting from the template will be used. Additional mapped channels will be ignored.

Select or clear the check boxes in the Render Options section as needed:
1. Select the Render loop region only checkbox 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.
2. Select the Stretch video to fill output frame size (do not letterbox) checkbox when you are rendering to an output format with a slightly different aspect ratio than your project settings. This will prevent black bars from appearing on the top and bottom or the sides of the output.
3. Select the Use project output rotation setting checkbox if you're rendering a rotated project and want to use the Output rotation setting from the Project Properties dialog for your rendered file.
  
  When the checkbox is cleared, the media is rotated according to its Media Properties setting, but the project itself is unrotated—you can use this setting to proof your project on an unrotated display.
  
  For more information, see Creating rotated projects
Use the Metadata Options controls to whether information about your project is saved with the rendered media file:
1. If the selected file type supports it, you can select the Save project markers in media file checkbox to include markers, regions, and command markers in the rendered media file.
  
  For more information, see Inserting markers Inserting regions and Inserting command markers
2. Select the Save project as path reference in rendered file checkbox if you want to save the path to your VEGAS Pro project in the rendered file. Saving the project path allows you to easily return to the source project if you use your rendered file in another project.
  NOTE
  - The project information in the rendered file is a reference to a project file only. If you modify the project file after rendering, the project data will no longer match the rendered file. To edit a project using a path reference, the project file and all media must be available on your computer. For more information, see Project references in rendered files
  - The checkbox will be unavailable if you haven't saved your project or if you're rendering using a third-party file-format plug-in.
Click the Render 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.