Can't get stereo file from "Bounce to Disk"

[Lawson]

I'm experiencing something strange when I try to create a stereo master with the "Bounce to Disk" command in a particular session. With the stereo source chosen in the bounce window and "stereo interweaved" or "multi-mono", the right channel always comes up blank. I don't have any plug-ins on the stereo master fader, and I'm not experiencing this with other sessions with the same parameters on the same computer. I've also checked my preferences with no luck. I feel as though I must be missing something. When I did a test and selected the right channel as the only bounce source, it apparently showed up in the bounce.

[spinsong]

what i could think of is that your I/O is probably screwed up, try changing that to the default settings. hope that helps.

[Lawson]

Spinsong,

I'll check it out at the studio tomorrow, but everything seemed to be working fine when I would simply play the session. I'd hear the stereo mix, the meters on the stereo master bus would be working, and the the meters on the 192 were seeing the output as well. The problem only occured when I would "Bounce to Disk" on that particular session. Very odd. I'll let you know what I come up with tomorrow.

Thanks,

Lawson

[Ozzie]

Are you sure that the source for BTD is correct ie. the mix bus that you are listening to.

[Lawson]

Ozzie,

Yes, I triple checked the source (it was A 1-2). I changed all the outputs to 3-4 and selected the same in the BTD window and still got the same problem. I'll try setting the I/Os to default tomorrow.

Lawson

[vze24x2x]

Your source may be 1/2, but if you have "mono summed" selected, you're going to get a mono file.

[spinsong]

Hi, again, I don't want to send you on a wild goose chase, but I know how it could be when you need to open up a session that won't respond to your commands. haven't we all had one of those. Anyway, I was thinking about the matter, and I think that you also could look at the panning, if the I/O thing doesnt work. I don't know if surround could be an issue also. If all else fails, you can try making a new session, and use the import tracks command to import off the old session, and make little bounces along the way in the new session to see if they're stereo. Hopefully it will find the culprit, if your session got corrupted. That's what I'm thinking, maybe the session got corrupted. you did say your other sessions work fine.
If all else fails...
you can make a mono mix, if you cant recover the session in stereo, and copy it to both tracks L+R. you'd have a mono mix, but at least it will come out of both outputs. Good luck

[mgordon]

Lawson,

I've had the same problem with several sessions. I have yet to figure out a solution so what I do is make a very small bounces of the session and audition them in the import audio dialog until they are stereo. Then I proceed to bounce the whole selection. What version of ProTools and what CPU are you using? I started having this problem once I updated to OS X 10.3.2 and ProTools 6.4. I didn't have this problem with 6.2 and OS X 10.2.8. I am running a G4 400MHZ which is not really supported anymore so that might be part of the problem. Let me know if you come up with a solution and I will do the same.

Mark G.

[PTUser NYC]

This won't fix your problem, but it is a workaround, if you need it.

Make a new stereo track, and mute it (to avoid feedback later). Set the input of the track to your mix bus (A1&A2?). Record your mix on the new stereo track. Select the resulting file in the audio bin, and choose "Export Selected as Files", set your preferences for your target file (bit depth, sampling rate, type of file, etc), and save it. The result is the same as the bounce to disk would have been.

In some cases (5.x that I know of) BTD doesn't really work well, so this method of tracking the mix and then exporting it is the way a lot of people print their mixes.

[spinsong]

Another work around is to play the audio though your main outs into an external CD recorder digitally. and then reimport the CD audio into a two track editor or into protools to ready it for reburning. you'd be out of a CD-R in this case. but at the CD-Rs going rates you wouldnt lose much. I probably wouldnt rack my brains too much with that one particular session, if everything else is working fine. If you can get your work out, by bypassing the bounce to disk commmand on that one particular session, I don't think it would make much of a difference. lets just hope the problem doesnt come up again. bugs are bound to eventually show up, especially in software. I also wanted to add that it didn't occur to me at the moment that going external was another solution, because I was thinking within the bounce to disk command, and coming up with a solution within those boundaries. going dual mono is probably not a good option, depending on your material.... hope everything works out for you.