The label wants 24 bit WAV stems. The artist wants an MP3 that fits in a WhatsApp chat tonight. Radio wants the edit that ends after the second chorus, as its own file, not as a note about where to stop. One mix, three deliverables, three specs that disagree about almost everything.
One settings page cannot hold three specs
The traditional shape of export settings is global: one source, one format, one range, applied to whatever renders next. That works until the day the deliverables disagree, which in delivery work is every day. The manual answer is serial: configure for the label, render, reconfigure for the MP3, render again, set the selection for the radio edit, render a third time, then rename everything so the files do not lie about what they are. Each pass is an opportunity to forget a setting from the pass before, and the mistakes hide until someone plays the files.
fMusic's export model removes the serial part by making the deliverable itself carry the configuration. That unit is the print.
What a print recipe is
A print is a named deliverable: what to render, from which mix source, in which formats, over which range. In fMusic Suite each print carries its own recipe, and the recipe is visible: a print shows Inherit where it follows the global export settings, or the explicit value where it overrides them. An override applies to that print alone and is excluded from the globals, so the common case stays simple, everything inherits, while the exception exists without a second system to learn.
That distinction does the quiet work. The stem prints inherit the studio defaults set once in Print settings. The WhatsApp MP3 overrides the format. The radio edit overrides the range. Nothing gets reconfigured between renders because nothing is shared that should not be. The full export model, and what moved where in the rebuild, is mapped in what changed from fMusic.
Print settings is where the studio default lives, and it is deliberately one place: the global mix source, the format list and the naming root that every print inherits unless it says otherwise. A custom print that overrides a value replaces the global for itself only and is excluded from Print settings, so changing the studio default later never silently rewrites the exceptions you made on purpose.
Source: what the print listens to
Each print renders from its mix source, inherited or overridden per print. Stems come from your export categories, which select their tracks by the structure of the session: a bus or an output in Routing mode, or one or more routing folders in Folder mode, which is part of Suite. How that selection works, and what it deliberately cannot point at, is covered in export categories from buses, outputs and routing folders. The practical point here is that a category with a source is already an automatic favorite print, so the stems half of a delivery usually arrives pre built.
Formats: a list, not a decision per run
A print carries a format list: WAV, AIFF or MP3, each with its own sample rate and bit depth. Every format in the list renders in the same pass, and a per format tag can land in the filename, Song_48k-24b.wav beside Song.mp3, so parallel versions never overwrite each other. The label's WAV and the artist's MP3 stop being two renders with a settings change in between; they are one print with two lines in its list.
Range: markers instead of timecode arithmetic
A print's range can be the whole session, a time range, or the span between two markers. The radio edit is the marker case: drop markers where the edit starts and ends, point the print's range at them, and the file renders exactly that stretch. Musicians think in song sections, Verse 1 to Chorus 2, and the range field thinks the same way, so the edit stays correct as long as the markers move with the arrangement.
The alternative is the timeline selection, and the timeline selection is the least trustworthy object in a busy session: it changes every time someone edits, and a bounce that depends on it depends on nobody having clicked since it was set. A range that lives in the print's own recipe survives the editing that happens around it.
The same evening, replayed
| Deliverable | What it overrides | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Label stems, 24 bit WAV | Nothing, inherits | The studio default is the spec |
| WhatsApp MP3 | Format | Same content, phone sized file |
| Radio edit | Range | Two markers define the edit |
| Alt mix from another bus | Mix source | Different print, different listen |
The row that changes the most evenings is the second: the extra format is not an extra render, just a line in the list. And the fourth row is the one to use sparingly, because a print that overrides its source stops matching the global settings on purpose, and the explicit value on screen is what keeps that honest.
Favorites: recipes that outlive the session
A print built from your categories can be saved as a favorite and reused on every project, because categories select their tracks by the session's structure rather than by names or counts: the same Drums print finds 20 tracks in one session and 13 in the next. Favorite sets can be saved and loaded, which is how a studio keeps one set of recipes per recurring client or per delivery spec. And every category with a source is already an automatic favorite print per session; if you delete one you never deliver, fMusic remembers the deletion and does not bring it back.
The result is that a recipe is written roughly once per spec, not once per song. The second delivery against the same spec starts from a list that already exists.
One pass, checked first
With the recipes set, the batch is one action, not an evening. Each print can be auditioned before anything renders, a few seconds per print with the session's monitoring untouched, which is where a wrong source or a leftover mute gets caught rather than in the delivery folder. Then the whole print list renders in one run, through the same queue everything in fMusic runs through, so three songs' worth of print lists can stack up and render overnight. Each print renders in its own error scope, so one failure does not kill the batch, and Pro Tools bounces into the session's own Bounced Files folder with fMusic moving the results to your destination afterwards, because that path is dependable where custom bounce destinations are not.
What recipes do not do
A recipe is configuration, not judgment. It renders what it says: a print set to 44.1 kHz renders at 44.1 kHz whether or not the spec said 48, so the recipe has to be right once, which is also what makes it right every run after. Recipes do not check loudness, naming conventions or the spec itself. And per print recipes are part of fMusic Suite: in fMusic Studio, prints follow the global export settings, which covers deliveries where one spec fits everything. The full tier split is in fMusic Studio vs Suite, and the whole delivery run, stems, instrumental and radio edit end to end, is walked through in Delivery day.
Frequently asked questions
What is a print in fMusic?
A named deliverable carrying its own recipe: what to render, from which mix source, in which formats, over which range. Favorites are prints saved for reuse across sessions, and every export category with a source becomes an automatic favorite print.
Can one print render more than one format?
Yes. A print carries a format list, WAV, AIFF or MP3 each with its own sample rate and bit depth, rendered in one pass, with a per format tag available in the filename so versions do not overwrite each other.
How do I render only a section of the song?
Set the print's range to the span between two markers, or to a time range. The whole session is simply the default range.
What does Inherit mean on a print?
The print follows the global export settings for that value. An explicit value is an override that applies to that print alone and is excluded from the global settings.
Do I have to rebuild my prints for every session?
No. Favorites carry across sessions because categories select tracks by structure rather than by name, and each session's categories become automatic prints adapted to that session's track count.
Are per print recipes available in fMusic Studio?
No. In Studio, prints follow the global export settings. Per print recipes, like print preview and Folder mode categories, are part of fMusic Suite.
fMusic Suite renders a delivery as a list of prints, each carrying its own source, formats and range, checked with preview and printed in one pass. The export model is at forte-ai.com/fmusic.
