For whatever weird reason I have not really bothered much with bouncing tracks. Apart from today where the benefits in terms of taxing resources etc. are obvious. But are there certain methods to work with these files? Do you bounce without effects for example? Are there specific settings to get the best possible rendered file ( to enable remixing or importing into other DAWS etc).
just looking for advice, thanks

 

Depends on your D.A.W and what you prefer.
Me personally, i print on an audio track and some have effects on them, some use sends and some are rendered with audiosuite. Resources definitely factor into all of that though. It's up to you.

 

It's important for archival. I got tons of projects I can't open any more because the plugins I used in them no longer exist or work on 64bit, or no longer sound the same for whatever reasons etc. All I have left from those are the random things I bounced while working on them, so I learned the lesson the hard way.

For archival maybe you can bounce all your stuff at 48k + 24bit, for a good compromise of "future proof" and disk usage. With all FX of course.

Bouncing can also change your workflow in a good way. Once it's bounced it's kinda set in stone, so you move on with your life. Making decisions fast and moving on, living with them, is the essence of getting things done. Infinite tweaking possibilities are a blessing on the surface only, deeper down they confuse our puny brain - if everything can always be tweaked and changed, it doesn't know what to rely on for solid ground and you can end up frustrated as hell and can't finish any tracks.

 

holy shit. i was about to say i learned the hard way as well.. how i agree with this statement. then i read the name. realized the last thing i posted on was inspired by agreeing with what someone wrote.. and they are both Satai. and these are my first two posts here ever

 

+1

This is soo true. Not as easy to achieve as it may seem. With so many options available, one is tempted to have "all options open" with 10+ FX on every channel.. which usually ends in a pile of overcooked 16-bar loops or something similar.

One way to escape from this is to compose (ok.., produce) music in one DAW, use FX creatively, bounce and then import stems into another DAW - so there is no way back. I've seen a lot of imo good producers working like that. Result.. lots of finished tracks..

 

the method you use depends on preference.
personally i dont like to bounce at all, i like to freeze things instead when i need to save resources. i like to keep as much control over the sounds for as long as possible. honestly though, sometimes im too obsessive about it and should commit to sounds more often.
as far as bouncing the effects goes, if you need to free up more resources then you might find you have to, but again, there advantages and disadvantes to both.

there are creative reasons for bouncing too, so you can do things with your audio that you cant do with a plugin, but i assume you are not talking about that?

my personal best practice is to bounce as 24bit 48kHz. i find this to be my favourite balance of quality vs size.
i also put all my bounces into a temporary file, where they will be deleted from later. that way i dont end up with a load of useless samples cluttering up my sample library. i will only move it to the sample library if it is something i can use later.

 

I hadn't thought of this. Quality tip.

 

My thoughts on this:
BOUNCE all, asap!
Your Digital Audio worksation likes to work with, uh, digital audio! Just because we can now keep everything as MIDI until the end doesn't mean we have to. Plus MIDI and automation uses more cpu than audio.
And for mixdown or mastering, you should be working with stems or a stereo bounce respectively anyway.
From my professional work over the last few decades, most people prefer this way.
I understand leaving things as MIDI for as long as poss, but when you are confident in your choices, it becomes irrelevant. Plus, you can always go backwards to a different saved state of a project anyway.
If this isn't convincing enough, then the future compatibility issue should be the main reason to bounce everything down as stems or individual tracks.

 

I always start with producing and mixing my songs first. At that point mixing is for me only making level adjustments with no processing like adding effects and so on in the mixer channels.

If I am happy with the song, then I will render all my sounds to wav files in 32 bit with 512-point sync. After that I use the rendered wav files in a new empty project and I start with processing like adding effects, equalizers, etc. If I am done with this and I am happy with how everything sounds, then I will start with mastering in the same project or in a new project. Depends on how much cpu space I have

I can really recommend to make wav files. Sometimes your projects and plugins are going to act crazy. Wav files are just helpful backup resources in that case

 

this might seem counterintuitive at first

Keeping things in midi:
not alot of options. (except the big ones like, change melodi figuer, change chords, replay parts etc.)

making midi parts into audio file:
endless options.
You are moving forward (from "demo" to "hero"? lol)

anyway,
i treat it like "recording" in the old days.
ones i get a certan part "down", i record my performance
it could be a chord progression, a bassline, an idea for a melodi, it could be a sequenced riff, maybe just 2 variations of a soundefx.

ussualy zero "efx" treatment in anyway as the starting point. i save the FUN for later.

other times i can be spending way too much time on "designning the sound and its variations througout the song" before i commit to recording. That ussualy happends when the whole vision of the song is more or less clear, or there is enough "parts" done, that it makes sence to spend effort on more detailed or specific work like that.

But there are many many more pluses for getting out of midi and into audio as soon as posible.
the question on have to decide on is : Do I want to finnish music, or - Do I want to endless tweak, and invite doubts?

:D

 

My Aunt Maybelle used to tell me, commit to audio and/or...

 

I think that is the first tip I find I agree with. I was boucing a few tracks last night and having bounced or rendered one, stops forever pissing around with the soft synth or whatever. PLus there are so many advantages to working with audio. I only asked because I only ever work with midi softsynths so i guess I was getting stuck in my ways... Some solid advice , helps a lot..

 

Briefly, I'll just say this--despite your genre/workflow/work-style/modus-operandi/etc., I ^would not* suggest bouncing your audio with effects. There is a grocery list of reasons but--again, briefly--even if the tracks are all set to go to a final mixing stage, or mastering stage, a lot can happen in those stages that may force you to go back and adjust certain parameters on your effects--e.g.: a final compressor on your Master that makes your reverb into a f**cked-off, auditory miasma of garbage, or a Master channel tape emulation that glues the mix nicely, but deadens the drums too much, making you have to rethink the settings on the individual or buss plugins for your drums that may have tamed your transients too much, initially. (If you can't tell these are just two of the 7,398 issues I have encountered. )
Good luck with your musical endeavors.

 

Exactly!

 

That's undisputed. The problem is when the effects CPU (or RAM) usage is what makes you bounce/freeze the track.

 

So perhaps then I should look more at 'freezing' tracks if I know that I need to go back to the source for any reason?
actually I guess I could just save multiple versions of the project... maybe have one that is audio as well as the original?

 

That's what I do... freeze them and save the CPU, they're archive-able, and you know the sound won't change for some weird reason but if in the final mix I decide something needs tweaking after living with it for a while I'm not frelled. An un-doable bounce is the logical way to go for me.

 

That's what I was saying.

This is Recording 101 really.

 

also, at least the way i make music, some effects are part of the creation of the sound source itself rather than mixing effects (for example).
my music is 99% synthetic, so these effects are common. i will bounce those with the audio but leave mixing based effects that will need to be tweaked later to fit other sounds into the mix.

really the deciding factor is "can i get the best result with my resources without changing this effect ever again", rather than what job the effect is being used for.
of course, you also need to concider every effect before that effect in the chain too, because if they are not also bounced then the result will be different.