"Bounce To Disk" Track is "Lower in Volume"

[LSNY]

Master Fader is at Unity "0".
I've got electric guitar tracks that have many regions. There's an amp plugin on the tracks, but the plugin is "printed".
I need to upload the tracks to Dropbox. So, I did a Bounce To Disk on each track. The volume of the Bounced Track is lower than the "original" track. Why?
I imported the Bounced Track(s) back into the session, and sure enough…lower in Volume / smaller waveform.

I know I can Consolidate and Export (and see how that sounds)---but why is a Bounce To Disk lower in volume, and how can I get around this?

[mesaone]

Any inserts on the master fader? If you have anything there that reduces gain, it will reduce the gain of your imported bounce as well.

[GeoffLee]

You say the Master fader is a unity, but what about the source track fader levels?

[LSNY]

Thank you, Gentlemen. No insert on Master Fade, source track at Unity, too.

[elicious]

hmmm… just did my first track bounce with 12 a few minutes ago,
then saw this.

re opened the sesh,
checked the audio on our console meters,
and on spectra foo;
all dead nut even…

[JuanPC]

No problem here, Hd12.3.1 Win7

Maybe... You have a different output in the bounce window...
Without more information can't help.

When you hit play, volume faders stay the same level?
Disable auto read, could be an automation saved by mistake.

[LSNY]

I'll test later, but could this be it?:
The 2 guitar tracks are mono, and in the session they are panned hard left and right.
These are the tracks I "Bounced To Disk".
When I Bounced they were still panned hard.
The Bounce was mono/summed.
Could the panning have caused a level drop?
I'll test this.

[LSNY]

Not an automation issue. Here's what I discovered. In addition to what I'll write below, of course I also used my EARS!

When the BTD was done on a track that was panned, the level of the bounce was much lower than the source. Like 7 db lower.

I Bounced again, with the source track panned straight up. This resulted in a bounce that was much closer in level to the "original". Still, it was 1.5 db lower in level.

Next, I did a "record into Pro Tools" on the same source material. THAT was exactly the same level as the source material.

Ya know those 2 numbers just below the fader? They are the Audio volume indicator (on the left) / and the headroom indicator (on the right).

When I look at them at a certain point in the playback, the source track and the "recorded into Pro Tools" track match, at exactly -6.6 on the Headroom Indicator. The track Bounced with the "extreme panning" reads -14.8. The track Bounced with NO panning reads -8.1. It's much closer to the source than the "extreme panned" Bounce, but not the same as the "recorded into Pro Tools", and you can HEAR the difference.

Makes me think / wonder…no more BTD?

My bounces were all done "Off Line". Cound THAT be the issue? Some day, when I have more time, I'll take a look at that…some day...

[midnightrambler]

This behaviour is entirely correct and predictable. ANY audio that goes through a fader will have its level affected depending on where its position is in the stereo spectrum, which is entirely dependent on how the pan ratio has been setup. This is also true for analogue boards. Just take a sine wave and sweep it through a master fader and watch how the overall level changes dependent on where the pan pot is.

I haven't watched this but there's probably more about it here

https://www.lynda.com/Pro-Tools-tuto.../102282-4.html

Upshot : why not just use commit audio?

[LSNY]

Right, Midnightrambler, that explains why the Bounce was lower in volume when the source track was panned.

But it does not explain why there was still a (small) drop in level when the source track was straight up the middle.

No automation. No inserts on the Master Fader. All Faders at Unity, etc.

I'd love to have the answer for that. Offline Bounce issue? As I said, at some point I'll a/b an Offline Bounce of this material with a standard old fashioned realtime bounce. (Although I doubt that could be it.)

Again, my "record back into Pro Tools" (realtime, of course) is perfect.