Bouncing a mix isn’t the only way to get your audio out of Pro Tools.
The Bounce Mix dialogue. Since Pro Tools 2023.3, you now have the option, on Macs, to bounce your mix in M4A format.After all the work has been done and the mix is finally sounding the way you hoped it would, what comes next for the engineer working in Pro Tools? Usually it’s going to go as follows: Bounce Mix, type in a meaningful name (which hopefully doesn’t contain the over‑optimistic word ‘final’), and go and make a cup of tea, secure in the knowledge of a job well done. But is that really all there is to it? In this article I look a little deeper at what happens between finishing the mix and finishing the job.
Faster, Better?
It wasn’t all that long ago that Pro Tools bounces were strictly real‑time affairs. It was only 10 years ago that bouncing a mix meant sitting through the whole mix in real time. (Of course, when real‑time bounces were first introduced, the fact that it was real time as opposed to slower than real time was the selling point!) However, computers inevitably get faster, and by the time Pro Tools 11 finally introduced faster‑than‑real‑time bounces, real‑time bounces seemed positively archaic.
The shortcut Command+full stop to abort a bounce is prominently displayed in the Bounce Mix window, and for good reason. How many times have you been bouncing a mix in real time and realised, under the scrutiny of the fact that this may well be the definitive version, that you spot a glaring error, one of those “What was I thinking?” moments? Years ago I used to teach Pro Tools and when gathering in projects burnt to CD (yes, it really was that long ago) I used to ask “So, who’s given me the blank one? One of you will have...”
That anyone would hand over a mix to a client (or a tutor) without checking it still surprises me, and this is why real‑time bounces still have a place alongside offline bounces. However, that isn’t to say that I would willingly go back to real‑time bounces without the option of offline. A mix has to be listened to, all the way through. And when you get into that supposedly perfect mix and spot the facepalm moment, remember that shortcut Command+full stop. If you use outboard equipment then offline bounces will probably have passed you by. They are strictly an in‑the‑box workflow.
If you regularly export different versions of mixes, it can be useful to send your source tracks to multiple outputs for bouncing simultaneously. To do this, hold down Control (on a Mac) or Start (on a PC) to select additional outputs.
Bounce Mix Window
If you’re on a Mac and running Pro Tools 2023.3 or later, a new export option has been added. M4A complements the venerable but still popular MP3 as a compressed output format. The mix source drop‑down allows you to select any software or physical output as the source of your bounced file; if you have Pro Tools Ultimate or Pro Tools Studio you can simultaneously create bounces from multiple sources. This is extremely useful if you regularly create different versions of mixes. If you find you do this often it is very worthwhile setting up a template to accommodate this, and an invaluable trick here is to route a track to multiple outputs simultaneously. While this can be achieved using sends, if all you want to do is route identical levels to multiple destinations then holding Control (on a Mac) or Start (on a PC) whilst assigning a track output allows you to route to more than one output at the same time. A ‘+’ next to the output indicates multiple destinations.
If you make a timeline selection then only that selection will be bounced, allowing you to make quick bounces of specific sections.
Precisely what gets bounced is straightforward enough but there is something to keep in mind. By default, Pro Tools bounces audio from the main output as set up in the I/O Window, from the beginning of the timeline to the last clip on the timeline. If you make a timeline selection then only that selection will be bounced, allowing you to make quick bounces of specific sections. My preferred method of bouncing a track is to select the last clip on the timeline, hit Option+Return to create a selection back to the beginning of the session, and then manually extend the end of the selection to accommodate any reverb tails. Adjust the start of the selection if necessary and bounce. All settings can be stored as presets so if you find your bounces regularly use different settings, consider saving them to the five quick presets at the top of the window.
Print Tracks
You might think that outputting your mix is adequately covered by the Bounce to Disk dialogue, but there are lots of times when you might want to take a different approach. In the old days, before Pro Tools 11, the audio engines for Pro Tools TDM systems and native systems were different, and as a result sounded different. There was a popular school of thought in those days that printing mixes in real time to an audio track gave superior results to bouncing to disk. This is no longer the case, but there are still workflow reasons for printing to a track rather than bouncing to disk.
If you are working on a three‑minute pop songs and find you need to make an edit and then output your mix again, then bouncing to disk will be fine. However, on longer‑form material it can be helpful to print to a print track and then, if edits are necessary, drop in to record across those sections to update the print track. While I’ve never done this on a music project, it’s how I regularly do podcast edits and it saves me a great deal of time.
Bouncing Tracks
Track Bounce lets you bounce multiple tracks, routing folders and auxes at a time.The Track Bounce option can be accessed by right‑clicking a track name in the Edit or Mix window. It can be used with audio tracks, routing folders and auxiliaries, and is a fast way to create stems. The requirement for stems for remixing collaboration and even mastering is more prevalent than ever and while debates rage about exactly what constitutes a stem, whether you output every track in a project and call those stems or use the term correctly and apply it to groups of related tracks, you can create them quickly using Track Bounce.
Simply select the tracks you wish to export individually and either right‑click on the track name or use the shortcut Command+Option+Shift+B (Control+Alt+Shift+B on a PC) and set up the bounce window to your requirements. Assigning a destination is particularly important when dealing with a group of related files like stems, and I also find the name prefix field useful at times like this. The option to include volume and pan automation can be used to ensure that when your stems are recombined at unity gain in a DAW your mix will be correctly reproduced.
Exporting Clips As Files
Sometimes both bouncing to disk and printing to a track are overkill. For example, while dedicated sample editors exist, I find it easier and faster to work in Pro Tools even if I’m just editing a single drum hit sample or the like. For these purposes plug‑in processing is often superfluous, so it isn’t necessary to capture the contribution of the mixer and its insert slots. On these occasions exporting clips as files is a much better option.
Right‑click on a clip in the Clips List, or select the clip you want to export in the Edit window. From the menu that pops up, you can export the clip ‘as is’, without any contribution from the mixer or inserts. If you select a clip on the timeline it should automatically become highlighted in the Clips List, and vice versa. If this doesn’t happen you need to check the editing tab of the Pro Tools Preferences, where the ‘Clip List selection follows Edit selection’ and ‘Edit selection follows Clip List selection’ options control this mutual selection of clips on the timeline and in the List.
The keyboard shortcut Command+Shift+K (Control+Shift+K on PC) will also open the Export Selected window. This is faster than bouncing as it doesn’t necessitate the processing involved in bouncing a mix. I use this frequently in combination with print tracks. This technique can also be used if you are printing a mix to a print track, as in this case processing will already have been captured in the print. However, it’s important to consolidate your print track if it contains edits, as individual clips on a print track will be exported as individual files.
So if you ever find yourself soloing tracks one by one and bouncing mixes, keep in mind that there there alternative ways to get audio out of Pro Tools, ways which are sometimes exactly what you need.
