[Steve@ZooWest]

I've never purposely used handles - don't know what they are!

Update: okay, now I know what they are. Interestingly, when I tested handles by equing a track and selecting "clip by clip", the default length in the bottom of the window was 2 seconds, which is exactly what the added length (at both ends) is when I do my offline bounces. But I see nothing in the interface window when I bounce that enables or disables handles.

I'll be more intentional moving forward to see if this behavior only occurs when I'm using markers, or if perhaps it's when I'm highlighting a previous audio file to delineate length.