15. Saving and exporting

Exporting audio

Audio, in the Export sheet, turns the song into files you can send, post or put in a DAW: the mix, played through the same instruments, amps and effects you hear in Stab, a file for each track (stems), or both.

Exporting audio

Available on Mac and Windows. Not on Web.

This isn’t on Web.

What goes in the file

The export plays the song from its start to its end (or the part you chose under What: the loop, or the bars of the selection), as you hear it:

• Every track that’s heard, through its sound: the guitar synth, the amps, the sampled kits and instruments, the effects and the mix bus. A muted track is left out; with a track soloed, only the soloed ones play. Under Tracks you can pick others instead, without touching the mixer: then those play, muted or not, and the song’s reference recordings don’t.
• Smart Tracks play as they do in the song.
• Recordings in the song play too, unless their lane is muted. A song ends where its last clip ends, or its last recording, whichever is later.
• The loop isn’t repeated: the song (or its part) plays once. With Let reverbs and echoes ring out, the tails go on after the last note, up to 12 seconds, then fade; without it, the file ends where the song or its part does.
• Practice settings aren’t part of the song: the file plays at the song’s own tempo and in its own key, whatever the speed or the key you practise in.

The song stays open while the file renders, and you can keep working.

Exporting

1. Open the Export sheet and pick Audio (or choose File › Export As › Audio…).
2. Choose What and Tracks, then:
   • Files: The Mix, Mix and Stems, or Stems Only.
   • Format: WAV, 24-bit; WAV, 16-bit; WAV, 32-bit float; or AAC (.m4a), compressed at 256 kbps, to send or post.
   • Sample rate: 44.1 kHz or 48 kHz.
   • Ending: let reverbs and echoes ring out, or not.
3. Check the name and the folder, then choose Export. The files render with their progress shown, and Cancel.

Stab remembers your choices for this song, and Export Again renders them again.

A file for each track

With the stems, the files go in a folder named after the song: the mix as “Song”, then a file for each track that plays: “Song - 01 Guitar”, “Song - 02 Bass”, and so on. Each stem is that track alone, with its own sound and effects and the sends it feeds, but without the master’s mix bus and without the song’s recordings. Every stem is as long as the mix, so they line up from the first sample when you drop them into a DAW.

A song shared with you whose owner keeps it in Stab has no exports; see Shared songs. Exporting is never counted against the free songs: any song you can open, you can export.