To bounce OR not to bounce...that is the question!

[postboy]

Charles,

Welcome to the forum! I look forward to reading all month long! Now for my question:

In a Mix++ system, when finishing a mix done entirely in PT, do you prefer to bounce to disk Or record to an outside source with different D/A's? And, if you do bounce within the system, do you prefer to bounce and then master, or do it all in one fancy take???

I am currently finishing a mix of a country superstar that I tracked, editied, od, and mixed entirely in PT and would like your input / output!

Thanks in advance!!!

peace,

bruce

[BrianT]

Have you bounced to disk in PT, sent the same mix digitally to a Masterlink, then compared them?

Wow. I couldn't believe the difference. Internal bouncing in PT is not "right". Definitely a step down from sending the digital output to an external device. Why? Got no clue at this point.

Try it for yourself and see if your results are the same.


Regards,
Brian T

[RKrizman]

Originally posted by BrianT
Have you bounced to disk in PT, sent the same mix digitally to a Masterlink, then compared them?

Wow. I couldn't believe the difference. Internal bouncing in PT is not "right". Definitely a step down from sending the digital output to an external device. Why? Got no clue at this point.

Try it for yourself and see if your results are the same.


Regards,
Brian T

That's weird. I bounce to disk daily with Protools and have never observed a problem. It is always identical to how the session itself sounds. When I first heard rumours of this I dragged some of my bounces back into my sessions to compare and they nulled out just fine. I know that isn't total scientific proof, but they sounded the same as well. You sure the Masterlink isn't adding some "lagniappe"?

Rick Krizman
KrizManic Music

[Charles Dye]

Bruce,

My preference is to bounce to disk always @ 24 bit. The only thing I am careful with is that if I have a super-precise automation move (with millisecond accuracy) then I listen to make sure the automation doesn't load down the processing bus and miss the precise move. Though I rarely ever have a problem with this.

In my experience, bounce to disk reproduces my mixes accurately.

[Renie]

Hey Charles,

Just noticed in your photo you're looking away and your hand is over your mouth - must be your alter ego!!

Renie

[postboy]

Ok then,

lets take this a bit further...what about mastering? do you prefer to save that step for AFTER the mix, and if so, (remember we have not left the PT environment) what mastering plugin(s) have you had success with.

also, I encountered something a bit strange yesterday while doing a very long (92min) bounce from a live performance, it seemed to do something akin to "ducking" or strange limiting in places that when I returned to, were fine during normal playback...any thoughts???

bruce

[Charles Dye]

Renie,

The photo is actually of me doing what I do all day long (and probably you too)...staring at a computer monitor. It was a candid taken during the DigiWorld tour. I was in the Netherlands @ the time. Really fun tour. More than a month all around Europe. Lot's of time to sight see, a lot of really beautiful cities, including yours. Had a great time with Jules while I was there. He's got a gorgeous studio. Got to hear his engineering first hand. He really gets great sounds.

Bruce,

I can't explain the odd dip you had. Was it in the bounced file or you heard it only during the bounce?

Regarding mastering, I would really leave it to the step after. I recommend that you should always have an un-mastered copy of every mix you do. As far as plug-ins I really leave mastering to the pros, but as I said in the mastering thread Ted Jensen @ Sterling Sound sometimes uses Waves Linear Phase Multiband as his sole compressor/limiter when mastering. That's a pretty good endorsement.