Bounce creation
Every bounce you create is two decisions. What to bounce: the whole mix, some tracks soloed, some tracks muted. And how: which folder, file type, bit depth, sample rate, range and mix source. The Create bounce area under the list holds both: a row of setup chips, and a row of mode buttons.
Set the chips, select tracks in Pro Tools if the mode needs them, press a mode button. The sheet that opens shows the name, the tracks it picked up and the same chips, and adds the bounce with Add 1 Bounce.
Mix, Solo and Mute
One rule explains the mode row: every bounce in the list is a Mix, a Solo or a Mute. Batch and Clips aren't types. They are fast ways to add many Solo bounces at once.
| Type | What you get | Select in Pro Tools first |
|---|---|---|
| Mix | The whole mix, exactly as the session plays. | Nothing. |
| Solo | One file with the selected tracks soloed together. Stems, an a cappella, a vocal group. | The tracks to solo. |
| Mute | The whole mix with the selected tracks muted. Instrumental, TV mix, no-lead-vocal. | The tracks to mute. |
Select the tracks in Pro Tools, then press the mode button or its shortcut (⌃⌘X, ⌃⌘S, ⌃⌘M; they work with Pro Tools in front). If the sheet says "Nothing is selected in Pro Tools", select the tracks and open it again.
When the queue runs, Fast Bounce solos or mutes exactly those tracks, by name, and puts them back afterwards.
Batch: one Solo bounce per track
Batch (⌃⌘B) adds a Solo bounce for each track, each soloed on its own. Pick the tracks, or let a rule pick them:
- Specific tracks (the Pro Tools selection)
- All audio tracks
- All folder tracks
- All VCA tracks
- All audio tracks inside the selected folders
- All folder tracks inside the selected folders
The two "inside" rules can include subfolders. Inactive tracks are always left out.
Names are built with the Before and After fields around each track's name: Song A - + track name gives Song A - Lead Vocal.wav, Song A - Keys.wav… See Naming bounces. Then Add 8 Bounces.
Rules in presets
Save a Batch bounce with a rule as a preset and it never has a missing track: on every session it takes whatever tracks match the rule. See Presets.
Clips: one bounce per clip
Clips (⌃⌘C) is for sessions that hold several songs or cues on the timeline: a mastering session, an album, a reel. Fast Bounce finds the clips on the selected audio tracks and adds one bounce per clip, each with the clip's own range on the timeline, accurate to the sample. Muted clips and inactive tracks are skipped.
Choose what each clip becomes:
- Solo bounces just that track over the clip's range.
- Mix bounces the whole mix over the clip's range.
Clip names come from the clips themselves, with the session name or anything else you add around them.
Which mode do I want?
- Mix of the song → Mix
- Instrumental, TV mix → Mute, with the vocals selected
- A cappella, vocal stem, drum stem → Solo, with those tracks selected
- Every stem in one go → Batch, with a rule like "All folder tracks"
- Ten songs in one session → Clips
Setup: where values come from
Every bounce carries its own setup. You see it as the row of chips, under the bounce list and in every Add and Edit sheet. Click a chip to change it; changes apply instantly, and Esc closes the picker.
The chips start with the session's own values: its file type, bit depth and sample rate, the current timeline selection, and the mix bus. Those are the values the session already has, so a new session bounces correctly without touching anything.
- Change a chip under the bounce list and the next bounces you add get that value. Existing bounces keep theirs.
- Change a chip in an Add or Edit sheet and only that bounce (or the bounces you're editing) changes.
- What a new session starts with is set in Settings › Bounce Defaults, where each value can be a fixed choice or Session, meaning "whatever the Pro Tools session uses". See Settings.
A chip's look tells you which case you're in:
From left to right: the session's value; a value you changed (with a reset back to the session's); a value that still needs a choice before the bounce can run; and, when editing several bounces, a value that differs between them (Mixed).
Folder
Where the file goes. By default it's Bounced Files/ inside the session folder. Type a name to create a subfolder of it: Stems gives Bounced Files/Stems/, and / nests, so Delivery/v2 works too. The folder is created when the bounce starts. The picker also lists your recent folders, and Choose in Finder… takes any folder on any disk.
File type, bit depth, sample rate
- File type: WAV, AIFF or MP3. MP3 is always 16-bit.
- Bit depth: 16, 24 or 32-bit float.
- Sample rate: 44.1, 48, 88.2, 96, 176.4 or 192 kHz. A different rate from the session's makes Pro Tools convert on the way out.
Need the same mix as a WAV and an MP3? Add the bounce twice with a different file type; or add it once, duplicate it (⌘D) and change the copy.
Range
Which part of the timeline to bounce. Two ways to set it:
- Memory locations: a start marker and an end marker. Best for templates, because markers keep their names from song to song and presets can find them again.
- Timeline selection: the selection in Pro Tools when you set it, as start, end and length.
The picker can push the range back to Pro Tools as a timeline selection ("Selection applied in Pro Tools"), so you can check it against the song before bouncing. Clip bounces ignore this chip: each one uses its clip's own position.
Mix source
The bus or output the audio is taken from, usually your mix bus. The picker lists the session's outputs and buses; filter to find one quickly. Pick several and the bounce makes one file per source in the same pass: a pre-limiter and a post-limiter bus, say.
Options
Behind the + chip, three switches:
| Option | What it does |
|---|---|
| Realtime bounce | Plays the session in real time instead of bouncing offline. For outboard gear and hardware inserts. Takes as long as the song. |
| Pad to frame boundary | Rounds the range to whole video frames. For video deliverables. |
| Import after bounce | Adds the finished file back into the Pro Tools session. |
