I've Fallen & I Can't Get Up!!

[The Waterboy]

Good morning to all! I'm fairly new when it comes to this, so please go easy on me! Here's the scoop: I'm the owner of a Digi002, Roland VS1880, and a couple of other little recording devices. I'm in love with Pro Tools (I'm a new user), blah, blah, blah. the only problem is I'm a moran who can't seem to figure out what is going wrong! I will lay down some tracks, and they sound great! When I "bounce to disk" all that goes to crap!! It sounds as if some little gremlin has scooped out all the mids, there's a drop in the overall volume, and the sound generally sucks! What can I do to fix this, as I am now thinking that I made a mistake when I purchased such an advanced machine such as the Digi002 vs. the VS-2400.
Help me Obi Wan .....

[Evil Jack]

Check your bounce options.
The bounce source should be Analog 1-2 (stereo) - your'e not bouncing from a reverb bus or anything are you?

What's the file type? etc

[Muddy Run]

You aren't trying to insert your reverbs directly to your audio tracks are you? Patience Amigo...I'm a vs1880-Pro Tools convert too...still have bugs to work out but very happy with the switch....but I did spend $3600 on the Digi Certification program. Now all I have to do is pass those hard ass tests....

[tele_player]

$3600 !!! Yikes !!!

[The Waterboy]

I appreciate the input!!
Evil Jack: bounce options are as follows: Analog 1-2 (stereo) negative on the bus - that would be too hard for me to figure out!
Muddy Run: The effects that have been added were done via AudioSuite (to minimize the strain on my processor), and yes!
Tele Player: I only wish I had those $$$'s to take the class! I hear very exciting things 'bout them!

Oh yeah ...
File Type: AIFF & WAV (I've tried them both!)
Format: Stereo Intervealed (what the hell does that mean, anyhow?)
Resolution: 8, 16, & 24 (tried 'em all)
Sample Rate: 44.1 through 96khz (tried 'em all)

Don't know if this means crap, but here's the setup:
Mac G4 1.25Ghz Memory: 1.25GB OSX 10.2.8
ProTools LE 6.1.2 Digi 002
and a partridge in a pear tree!

I know this subject isn't very exciting, but please remember that I am the Waterboy ....
thanks in advace for any assistance with this issue .... and good luck with the schooling Muddy!
Maybe I can figure out a way to post some kind of cool Victoria Secret pics so everyone will be interested in my boring stuff!

[mahler007]

Are you using the dither plug-in on the master fader?

[lwilliam]

You can try this to narrow down the problem area:

Instead of using bounce to disk, take the main outputs from your analog outs and return them to a couple of inputs and record the output onto a new stereo track. BE SURE TO MUTE THAT STEREO TRACK while you're recording. If you then solo that stereo track afterwards and it still sounds like crap, then the problem is not in the bounce options, but in your output or monitoring. If that's the case, it may be that you have the phase reversed on one of your leads - which can certainly make things sound very odd.

If the new track sounds good, then you need to look at the bounce options more carefully.

BTW, interleaved simply means that the left and right channels use a the same file. It's a single stereo file instead of a left mono and a right mono file.

[JFreak]

Format: Stereo Intervealed (what the hell does that mean, anyhow?)

it means that one file carries two channels of audio - which is i believe NONSTANDARD way in audio production. multiple-mono files in comparison mean that each individual channel of audio is stored in its own (mono) file. you have realized that your audio folder contains TRACKNAME.L and TRACKNAME.R files for your stereo tracks, haven't you? that's the way to go.

[Muddy Run]

Pro-Tools won't work with interleaved files, but will convert them to that for the bounce, which needs to be done to put it on cd properly.

Thanks for the good luck wishes...the class is over and I did well, but Digidesign's tests are hard and you have to score 90+ to pass. I've failed the 201 test twice now. I have to pass that and the 210 to be "Digi-certified." I'll probably get the 201 on the next go round...then it'll probably take at least three tries to pass the 210. Trouble is after three tries you have to pay $30 a pop to retake, but I guess after $3600 that's a mere pittance.

[The Waterboy]

Alright ... I hope that everyone is ready to laugh at the stupidity oozzing from me as I type this, here it goes:

mahler007: I haven't made a "master fader" track! I was under the impression that if I wanted to check things out, I just use the
Bounce To Disk option. As for the dither, I can't say that I have used it at all ... but it seems like I have used the
"dither" option when bouncing to disk ....

lwilliam: I toggling between typing and trying what you said: doesn't seem to be a problem there, but that was a very good
idea .... I sure as heck wouldn't have thought of it!

JFreak: begging your pardon, I don't follow!? Are you suggesting that I somehow use the L & R mono audio files to burn a
disk? If so, how could I do something like that while using Toast, Peak LE, or iTunes as my "burning" application?

Muddy Run: I can't even spell the word "moron" without screwing it up!! Most of the time i have trouble counting to "210!"
Judging by your commitent and messages, I'd say that you'll do just fine!


Once again, I appreciate everyone taking the time to respond, as I know you all have better things to do!! This is very inspirational to know there are people out there who care ..... (que the outro from Gone With The Wind!) ........ thanks for the support -->