Best Way To Bounce - OPINIONS PLEASE

[spearson8]

Ok Folks,

Which is the best method to get your music out of Pro Tools with the LEAST amount of compromise sonically?

I hear people bussing everything to an AUX and somehow bouncing from there, or the exporting regions method, but very rarely does anyone praise the 'Bounce To Disk' or 'MP3' encoding options within Pro Tools.

My sessions always need to be MP3 for emailing with clients so I use PT's MP3 converter but for my Master Discs, which method is the best and why but above all HOW.

[Dism]

Both options are acceptable. Sonic quality is not the issue, it comes down to workflow.

[stpete111]

Originally Posted by Dism

Both options are acceptable. Sonic quality is not the issue, it comes down to workflow.

Exactly correct. Anyone who says there is a sonic difference between, for example, bouncing to disk (wav) or recording to disk, is creating illusions in their head. It's the same exact thing. Now, obviously there IS a sonic difference in the format that you bounce to (both file format and conversion quality/bit rate). But not the method by which you bounce.

To answer your question more directly - if you have no issues with errors related to buffers and high plugin content hogging power, bounce to disk. If you have occasional errors, record to disk, so you can pick up where you left off if you do get one of those errors. Record to disk does entail an extra step in that you then need to export it from your session.

[daniel.yengle]

No, sorry. I have to disagree with you guys here.

I know what you're talking about. This method was taught by Bruce Tambling in my mixing and mastering class. We even had industry professionals come in and give us tips. It was sweet...

[carlone]

Originally Posted by spearson8

Ok Folks,

Which is the best method to get your music out of Pro Tools with the LEAST amount of compromise sonically?

Routing your tracks and recording to a track within pro tools is the most accurate representation of your mix (assuming it's a large mix with heavy automation). Heavy automation is really the key word because pro tools is more accurate in playing back that automation while re-recording to a track COMPARED to bouncing to disk.

Can you really hear the difference ..... I don't know but this has long been true with pro tools so I rarely bounce to disk unless it's to make an MP3.

[jasonthurley]

No differences in anything I have done.... bounce to disc or exporting from a bounced track in the region bin...recording a sub mix down to a single stereo track and then bouncing to disc.... Compared .wav files...... NO difference... same digital stream.

I never do MP3 conversion in PT... always bounce to .wav and use a 2ndary software such as Switch to convert to MP3 and that way I have a bit more control over the MP3 quality.

[Dism]

Originally Posted by carlone

Routing your tracks and recording to a track within pro tools is the most accurate representation of your mix (assuming it's a large mix with heavy automation). Heavy automation is really the key word because pro tools is more accurate in playing back that automation while re-recording to a track COMPARED to bouncing to disk.

Can you really hear the difference ..... I don't know but this has long been true with pro tools so I rarely bounce to disk unless it's to make an MP3.

This has been debated forever... But no real evidence has ever proved it. If you Bounce to Disk and then Bounce to Track, the most likely scenario is that you will end up with two wav files that cancel out.

The only proven sonic difference is that dither is automatically applied to file exported using Export Regions as Files.

[carlone]

Originally Posted by Dism

This has been debated forever... But no real evidence has ever proved it. If you Bounce to Disk and then Bounce to Track, the most likely scenario is that you will end up with two wav files that cancel out.

The only proven sonic difference is that dither is automatically applied to file exported using Export Regions as Files.

Agreed, sonically it's "extremely" hard to hear any differences. But re-recording back into a track (or multiple tracks) has it's benefits for those that have created templates that let you take advantage of this process. For instance our music template lets us record both a stereo, a TV mix and an a acapella (in case of a remix) in one pass.

[spidey01]

Agreed, sonically it's "extremely" hard to hear any differences. But re-recording back into a track (or multiple tracks) has it's benefits for those that have created templates that let you take advantage of this process. For instance our music template lets us record both a stereo, a TV mix and an a acapella (in case of a remix) in one pass.


This makes the most sense to me

[reichman]

Agreed, sonically it's "extremely" hard to hear any differences. But re-recording back into a track (or multiple tracks) has it's benefits for those that have created templates that let you take advantage of this process. For instance our music template lets us record both a stereo, a TV mix and an a acapella (in case of a remix) in one pass.

Not to mention the fact that you can stop, punch in and out, fiddle, punch again. Which is a huge timesaver compared to using the Bounce to Disk function, where you have to cancel it to fix something and start all over again.