This video by renowned professor, ProMedia Training Instructor, and Author of the Avid Learning Series Pro Tools Certification Textbooks, Frank D. Cook, discusses Track Bounce in Pro Tools. This function allows you to export audio stems of individual tracks from your session. If you need to share your Pro Tools Audio Tracks with other sessions or even other DAW's, Track Bounce is a necessity. This feature allows you to export audio stems of individual tracks. In this tutorial video, Avid Master Instructor Frank D. Cook takes you through how to use Track Bounce to export your tracks as individual files.
Reasons for using Track Bounce include: exporting individual tracks to use in another session, rendering audio track with processing for backup, finalizing session for client delivery, and much more. Before Track Bounce, this would be a tedious amount of extra work. Over the years, engineers have developed their own methods, and work-arounds in Pro Tools, for example: Consolidate Clips then exporting Clips as Files, Committing all tracks, etc...
Track Bounce give you the ability to create an export ready audio file from individual outputs, with or without track changes such as volume and pan. For example, if you are using Aux Tracks to sub-mix your session, you can Track Bounce from each Aux to create stems of each source. This feature is used in Music and Post Production mixing, especially during collaborative sessions and workflow.
Using Track Bounce Step-By-Step
Step 1- Select the tracks that need to be exported (track names will be highlighted).
Step 2- Make your timeline selection to insure the start point and endpoint of the material you would like included from all of your tracks. This will insure synchronicity with all of your tracks.
There are different techniques with music vs post production, but the theory remains the same. In my example, it refers to a short song, so my selection includes the lead-in and goes slightly beyond the ending. If the music was recorded on a tempo-related Grid, then use Grid mode to make the selection. This way, these stems of the individual tracks can be lined up in sync on the next DAW timeline. (see picture below)
Step 3- Go to "Track" menu, select Bounce. You can also use the keyboard shortcut: Shift + Option + Command + B (mac) / Shift + Alt + CNTRL + B (pc)
You have several options to choose from when using this feature. Aside from the technical setting such as audio file type, bit-depth, sample rate, you also have the option of whether of not to render any Volume and Pan Automation on the tracks.
This is a handy feature for working professionals. On large projects such as Albums, or Films, you have several Audio Engineers working on different aspects of each session; information needs to be transferred from one session into another where final mixing and balances will happen. You might choose to not render any of your Volume or Pan changes if they are not in final context with the rest of the session.
Conversely, you might need to bounce each of your final mix elements to individual stems, such as Drums, Vocal, Backing Vocal, GTR, etc... You can choose to bounce the stems with effects applied so the final audio files are the sound of the desired mix, with all changes and plugin processing. The possibilities are endless in ways to allow you a more streamlined workflow.
These tracks will bounce to new audio files, and are placed by default in the Bounced Files Folder of your session (this can be changed if you wish).
All of the new audio files are the same format, as well as the same length, making it super easy to transfer these to the next person in line that needs to work with them.
I hope you can see how this feature can help you same time, as well as help with your workflow.
Author: Frank D. Cook & Joe Sears
Avid Certified Pro Tools Instructors
ProMedia Training, LLC
www.protoolstraining.com
888-277-0457