How it works
Modes decide what you bounce and Setup decides how it's made. Here's how the two come together when you create a bounce.
In short
Modes
Modes decide what you're bouncing. Mix gives you the whole mix, Solo just the tracks you've selected, Mute the whole mix without them. Batch and Clips add one bounce per track or per clip in one go.
Parameters
This is where you choose your bounce settings: folder, file type, bit depth, sample rate, range and mix source. They start with your session's own values, and every bounce you create inherits whatever they're set to right now.
Creating a Bounce
Select your tracks in Pro Tools, check the parameters, then press a mode. The new bounce lands in the list with its own copy of the settings, so you can change them for the next one without touching it.
Many deliverables, few clicks
Pick what you bounce with a mode, and how it's made with Setup. Click any chip or mode button below: it opens the same picker or sheet as the app, with what it does beside it.
What a bounce is
A bounce is one file you want from Pro Tools, waiting in the list until you run the queue. Every bounce is two decisions:
- What you bounce: the whole mix, some tracks soloed, or some tracks muted. The mode you press decides this, and it reads your current Pro Tools selection.
- How it's made: where the file goes, its format, which part of the timeline, which bus. These are the parameters, shown as chips in Setup.
The modes
| Mode | Adds | Select in Pro Tools first |
|---|---|---|
| Mix | One Mix bounce: the whole mix, as the session plays. | Nothing. |
| Solo | One Solo bounce: the selected tracks soloed together. | The tracks to solo. |
| Mute | One Mute bounce: the whole mix with the selected tracks muted. | The tracks to mute. |
| Batch | One Solo bounce per track, from the selection or a rule such as All folder tracks. | The tracks, or nothing with a rule. |
| Clips | One bounce per clip on the selected tracks, each over the clip's own range. | The tracks holding the clips. |
| Presets | Saved recipes: mode and parameters in one click. | Nothing. |
Every bounce in the list is a Mix, a Solo or a Mute; Batch and Clips are fast ways to add many. Every mode in detail: Adding Bounces and Presets.
The parameters
| Parameter | What it sets |
|---|---|
| Folder | Where the file goes. Bounced Files/ inside the session folder by default; type a name for a subfolder, or choose any folder. |
| File type | WAV, AIFF or MP3. MP3 is always 16-bit. |
| Bit depth | 16, 24 or 32-bit float. |
| Sample rate | 44.1 to 192 kHz. A rate other than the session's makes Pro Tools convert on the way out. |
| Range | Which part of the timeline: between two memory locations, or the timeline selection. |
| Mix source | The bus or output the audio is taken from, usually the mix bus. Several sources make one file each. |
| Options (+) | Realtime bounce, Pad to frame boundary, Import after bounce. |
Every parameter in detail: Changing Parameters.
Creating a bounce
Here's how the two meet when you add a bounce:
- The chips under the bounce list hold the parameters your next bounces will get. They start with the session's own values (or your Bounce Defaults), so a new session is ready as it is.
- Pressing a mode takes a copy of those parameters and adds one bounce (Mix, Solo, Mute) or many (Batch, Clips) to the list.
- From then on, every bounce keeps its own parameters. Change a chip under the list later and the bounces you've already added stay as they are; edit a bounce and only that bounce changes.
So one Setup can serve many bounces (a WAV stem set from one Batch), and one list can mix Setups (the same mix as a 24-bit WAV and an MP3). See Changing Parameters for where each value comes from.
From list to files
Checked bounces are queued. Press Bounce… and Fast Bounce runs them session by session: it solos or mutes each bounce's tracks, sets its range, hands its parameters to Pro Tools' Bounce Mix, and moves on. See Start Bouncing.