Making your mix rock out of ProTools. Please help

[Christian]

I am just finishing one of my first projects (rock band) at my studio and could use some informative help. I recorded the session at 48 khz/24 bit wav files. I can run either ProTools 6.1LE or 5.2LE on my system. Using Mac and a Digi001. I would like to get the best mix out available. When I have burned CD's using bounce to disk, I first tried the MP3 option which did not sound good when burned onto a disk. Tried AIFF files and it sounded better. But not exactly what I am hearing out of the speakers. How should I convert this to a CD for best sound quality what program do you recommend and what should I set my bit rates and sample rate at? I can either mix right in ProTools and do the conversion in the computer and burn my master CD or I have a Ward Beck console hooked up where I can use all 16 outs and go through some extra outboard gear if needed and then mix to DAT(but will need to figure out how to burn a CD) or route it back into ProTools. I have the Ramsa AD96 and DA96 for extra converters. What should I record the sessions at in the future to accomplish the highest quality and risk the least amount of degradation in sound, AIFF files, WAV, SDII and 44.1 or 48khz.
Thank you, Christian

[Detlef Brockmann]

Hi Christian,

why would you convert your bounced ProTools file into an mp3 file??? And then burn it on CD!? mp3s are good if you wanna send an audio file via the internet but are pretty bad in terms of sound quality. You never want your master files being converted into that format. Choose ".wav", ".aiff' or "SDII".

Are you looking for some help in terms of how to mix music in general? Or how to mix in ProTools? Or what would be the best format for your master files?

Detlef