bounce - real time only?

[apfoll]

is PT9 still limited to real time bounce "speed" or am I missing something?

[HD2]

Yes we're all missing something. One day we might get it but don't hold your breath. Sadly bounce is still real time.

[apfoll]

That's disppointing at best. Been a PT user on and off since PT6 but some of my projects (backing tracks for live band medleys - up to 15 mins long) are just too long to sit through a bounce. Especially if something needs to get fixed (rebounced) and is discovered later. Been using Cubase for that.

Thanks for the quick reply.

[Obsidian Dragon]

Yeah. It is still real-time. I heard it is due to RTAS, hence the name Real Time Audio Suite.

[Jrestes927]

I don't really mind the real-time bounce, but I do have a suggestion for future releases of Pro Tools:

Enable the user to save a given number (say, at least 6) of different mixes for bouncing, and have a "batch bouncing" option. That way, if I want to bounce a few different mixes, but they are a little longer, I could set my computer to "batch bounce" before I go to bed, and have all of those mixes done when I wake up.

Perhaps we'd have to save a few different session files, and then have a separate utility to batch bounce the sessions? I don't know...just thinking out loud.

If there's something like this already available, please - someone make me aware of it :)

[cwsand]

Originally Posted by Obsidian Dragon

Yeah. It is still real-time. I heard it is due to RTAS, hence the name Real Time Audio Suite.

I think it's actually a limitation of Pro Tools HD since the processing is handled by DSP cards. Digi's thinking was that they didn't want LE to have a feature HD couldn't, so they never made offline bouncing available. BUT, with some major improvements and limitations lifted in PT9 by Avid, and with HD going native - hopefully this long-requested feature will be available soon.

[albee1952]

I am another that doesn't mind the real time bounce that bad(how impatient are we anyway?). In any case, if you really hate it, you could bus everything to a stereo AUDIO track and keep that in record as you go. Once you reach the end, just consolidate the final stereo mix and export it.(check your punch points in case you need any cross-fades or region end adjustments).

[NewdestinyX]

Originally Posted by albee1952

I am another that doesn't mind the real time bounce that bad(how impatient are we anyway?). In any case, if you really hate it, you could bus everything to a stereo AUDIO track and keep that in record as you go. Once you reach the end, just consolidate the final stereo mix and export it.(check your punch points in case you need any cross-fades or region end adjustments).

That's what i've done for years! My tracks are always bussed to bus 31-32 and then I have a stereo audio track after a Master Fader whose in is bus 31-32 and the out is A1-2. I don't ever use the bounce to disk command since it's all in real time anyway. I run down a mix -- and then any updates the client asks for -- for any little section that I update, a few bars of or so, I just QuickPunch in over that few bars. Listen back to see if it created any clik or pop, if so - put a crossfade - and then simply hit 'consolidate' over the whole distance of the song and, voilá, no sitting thru another full run down of the mix. It's easy - and I've delivered hundreds of masters that way.

Back about ten years -- a couple of fellow engineers and I did 'null tests' with bounce to disk versus real time mix to disk in MOTU's DP - and discovered the two mixes did NOT null. It was then we determined that we'd never use a bounce to disk over a real time run of a mix. I know the 'tech-ie engineer types' here on the forum will assure me there is no difference between bounce to disk and using busses to mix -- but there was a difference - at least in DP4. Some of you maybe were around at Gearslutz when I posted the proof files. It was 'eye opening' and made a lot of 'tech-ie' types scratch their heads. There are times when I'm glad I don't know what an 'ohm' is or what 'algorithm' means.. I just know what my ears tell me and that's what they 'pay me' for..

[bad jitter]

Originally Posted by cwsand

Digi's thinking was that they didn't want LE to have a feature HD couldn't, so they never made offline bouncing available.

I remember when I had Audiomedia III card with Pro Tools 4, that bounce was faster than real-time? Or was it when using Pro tools 4 with DAE PowerMix? Anyway, bounce faster than real-time has existed. So it's a question of AVID giving that feature back to Pro Tools users.

[Barnabas]

Originally Posted by bad jitter

I remember when I had Audiomedia III card with Pro Tools 4, that bounce was faster than real-time? Or was it when using Pro tools 4 with DAE PowerMix? Anyway, bounce faster than real-time has existed. So it's a question of AVID giving that feature back to Pro Tools users.

Back in the early days of PT the BTD was as fast as the computer could process it. It was not real time, and you did not hear the audio as it bounced.

I understand that real-time BTD was created so you can use external effects when you mix down. If this is so, I'd like a bounce-fast option for those of us who mix in the box with no external processing.

Jrestes927: I like the batch-bouncing option. I am often creating sound effects, edited music, and other bits of audio for theater, dance recitals, corporate events, etc. Often I am working on as many as 100 different audio segments that all need to be bounced individually. A batch bounce would let me walk away from the computer while it does its thing.

Hey, it took only about 15 years of requests to get Digi to create the BTD keyboard shortcut. Maybe we'll get real-time bounce in another 15 years!