Problem w/ song length when using Pro Tools for mastering....

[MarkGenero]

Help.

I want to bounce one of the tracks in my session to disk and have it come out just the length of that track. I can't seem to do it as it always comes out the length of the longest track in the session.

Here's my problem:
Using David Franz's new book "producing in the Home Studio with Pro Tools" I'm using his suggestion of Mastering with Pro Tools.

I have 8 songs saved in stereo wav files on my hard drive. I open a new pro tools session, then I import each song into a stereo track. I create a master track. I tweak each song for volume, eq, compression, etc. When it's ready, Franz's book says to then bounce each song individually to disc as a stereo wav file so you can then use CD burning software to burn your master CD. Problem is when I solo and "select" one song (ie a stero track) and bounce it to disk, the bounce length seems to default to the length of the longest song (track) in the session. Since the longest song (track) in the session is 5 minutes, all the bounced song wav files will be 5 minutes long. This will leave blank space in all the other song's wave files. I can't find the work around for this.

So my question is: How do I get Pro Tools to bounce just one of the tracks and have it only just the length of that track, and not default to the longest track of the session?

I tried highlighting the track to be bounced in the edit window as Franz says, but it still defaults to the length of the longest track.

Thanks, Mark G.

[Mr_Seven]

You need to select the range by click and draging in the min/sec/beat display at top. This way you could select the entire or a partial section. Use this for a complex arrangement.

But your situation is easy (because it's one long file) just select the contents of your desired track and this will dictate to protoolsLE just what to bounce (time wise).

[MarkGenero]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:<HR>Originally posted by Mr_Seven:
You need to select the range by click and draging in the min/sec/beat display at top. This way you could select the entire or a partial section. Use this for a complex arrangement.

But your situation is easy (because it's one long file) just select the contents of your desired track and this will dictate to protoolsLE just what to bounce (time wise).<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Darren,

Thanks. I may be doing something wrong, but I think I tried this. I selected the track contents in the edit window by using the hand grabber which highlighted the entire track. But when I then bounce to disk, the length of the bounced file still comes up as the length of the longest file in the session, not the length of the selected file.

Am I missing something here?

thanks again,

Mark

[Roy Howell]

Mark,

Just highlight the song (all tracks) by dragging from the beginning point on the left(cursor on top), all the way to where you want it to stop (the whole Edit Window should be black. If not, post back). BUT, simply solo just the track you want.

That's the only track that will be bounced to a WAV, and it will be just the length you highlighted.

Roy

[simonftrent]

Mark,

Click on the 'end of song' button within the transport window. Hopefully this will the genuine end of your song, but I had experiences where this was at bar 8000. This rendered the bounce to disk inoperable, even if I only wanted to do a single track bounce (although I wanted to bounce the whole song). The solution was to cut the spare bars at the end of the song to a more realistic time.

Worth a shot.
Si

[Mr_Seven]

Selection or track length
"If you make a selection in a track, the bounced mix will be the length of the selection. If there is no selection in any Track, the bounce will be the length of the longest audible track in the session."

page 400. Pro Tools Ref Guide 5.1