Stem export and sidechains

[pk-1]

It's the first time I'm using it this way, so maybe it's always been like that, but this behaviour in 8.1 is not quite how I interpreted the articles/videos I looked at.

I've got a track/channel A and a track/channel B. A has an insert which takes sidechain input from B. Nothing is muted or soloed.

Now I export channel stems.

• If I only export A, the sidechain is ignored.
• If I export both A and B in one go, the sidechain is processed.
• If I export A in realtime mode, the sidechain is processed, regardless of whether I also export B.

Is this how it's supposed to be? Why do I effectively need to export B to get the sidechain for A? What has realtime processing got to do with it?

Any pointer to some official documentation on how this is designed to behave would be very much appreciated!

 

[ProTjek]

I haven’t tested this exact behaviour in 8.1 yet, but what you describe does make sense from a routing/rendering perspective.

If channel A depends on a sidechain signal from channel B, then B effectively becomes part of the processing chain for A, even if you’re only trying to export A as a stem. So if B isn’t included or “active” during the offline stem export, A may be rendered without receiving that sidechain input.

Realtime export probably works because the session is being played back more like normal playback, where all the relevant routing and sidechain inputs are live. Offline stem export can sometimes be more selective about which channels are included in the render graph.

So yes, it may be intended behaviour, or at least a limitation of how stem export handles sidechain-dependent tracks. To be safe, I’d export both A and B together, or use realtime export when the sidechain is important.

I agree that official documentation would be helpful here, because it’s not immediately obvious that exporting only the receiving track could ignore the sidechain source. Else try to contact https://www.soundstorexl.dk/, they are great at helping

 

[pk-1]

Thanks for chiming in ProTjek!
To be clear, I don't mind that it's doing what it's doing, but I wonder if this couldn't be explained more clearly.
The manual just says that exporting a stem corresponds to what you get when you solo that channel. This is obviously true in the first case. The second case can be fit in, if you interpret it such that exporting multiple stems works in parallel rather than sequentially, so all the selected channels are soloed. The third case is clearly not as described.