How to bounce "What I hear" to audio track

hi, qtractor only stems what goes there internally, so to speak :)

qtractor doesn't really support side-chaining scenarios, mind you, as most of the workarounds are really and just that: workarounds--they all resort to some external loops of processing through jack of course and that says it all.

you can always take the true bouncing option: record in realtime the material being produced. nevertheless.

on a definitive rule, qtractor can only export what goes into its inner output buses, and nothing else...

cheers

ps. then again, let me remind you, qtractor is NOT a monolithic DAW, it isn't one to start with, remember me saying that over and over again?;)
-- Qtractor is a sequencer with *some* DAW features, right?

let's be clear about this:

you may only export the entire song in qtractor, if and only if ALL material is laid out on qtractor tracks, be that audio or MIDI, but mostly audio for most if not all that matters.

so. the way for you to get hold of your entire arrangement, song or whatever, is doing it probably in several steps, as far as qtractor goes...

maybe I'd rather ask about what are you really trying to achieve with "side-chaining" anyhow?

cheers

ps. sure you know about my own stance about that lousy trick called side-chain compression, specially when done over-compressed already material (eg. already mastered samples)?

Here's what I do to create mixdowns and stems. I don't know if my process is a work-around or whatever but it's what I've settled on. Before I begin, it's important for me to mention that I do NOT run my instrument plugins from within Qtractor itself. Instead, I run them in Carla which I send to over MIDI busses. The audio is then sent back to audio busses I maintain in Qtractor. Essentially, I use Qtractor as a router of sorts. Effects are handled much in the same way 99% of the time although they make use of Aux Sends which send to their own dedicated audio busses. I'll assume this basic mode of operation is understood and move on to the setup I use to create a mixdown (all tracks) or a stem (individual track either wet or dry depending on the on/off state of the plugin sitting in the bus).

Mixdown or Stem recording process:
1. Add a new audio track named "Mixdown". Input is "Master" and Output is "Mixdown". Bring Gain fader to 0 (or -70db) <- VERY IMPORTANT!
2. Enable Record on "Mixdown" track, Record then Play in transport (in other words, the usual recording process).

When all tracks are unmuted, we are mixing down the entire track. Likewise, I solo a particular track when I'm rendering a stem. The process can be extremely time consuming but I'm fine with it. The only side effect I've noticed is that my stems can be a tad longer then the original material and not quite line up with the MIDI. I've learned to evaluate this on a case by case basis and adjust the stems as needed. From past conversations, I'm confident this is a result of the "loopback" nature of my setup/process. Fine, I've learned to live with it. :)

Hopefully this has helped. Feel free to let me know if something is unclear.

This is an interesting thread. It's always nice to learn other people's workflow. I'm curious to know how Rui does the "sidechain" thing. If you don't use any external plugins, how do you do the trick?

I'll describe how I side-chain this Friday night when I'm up all night preparing stems.