Hi,

I do both for a lot of reasons including stems, gears and stuff. I print stems 100% of the time because it's where the money is and that's where my job ends but gotta have stereo file and stereo limited file too for client reference too which sometimes I just do offline bouncing because sometimes I have close to no stereo bus processing and let the other guy after me take care of it. Mastering guy sometimes want all 3 versions. Well, that's just how it is for me, it's not consistent and depends on the job etc. Sometimes I just print stuff even when it's possible to offline because I believe I will focus more on listening to make sure no funky stuff happening when too much processing going on if the CPU allows it. No problem whatsover, just random thought of the day.

Okay, the thing is I just wondering you people that been doing stuff 100% in the box do it :

1) How do you do it, what is your preference
2) Is there a reason you choose one over the other
- Is there technical reasons ?
- Is there any aesthetic reason ?
3) Do plugins react differently ? do you ever detect that they react differently under stress real-time or over the top oversampling in offline mode, faulty buggy plugin aside ? well, OS does technically sound different.
4) workflow, efficient reason, CPU power
5) do you ever run any test ?
6) BONUS Question : if you sent your track to the other guy for mixing, you being the producer/writer do you print reverb send ? assuming it is sent as WAV not project files.

tbh, I didn't study much about this topic for no absolute reason, it's just got passed me without im realizing it, so I don't know the real science behind it. Im just doing what I do because I'm already get used to it, plus sometimes it's the only option I have (gears) or CPU can't handle OS and I don't want to push my computer. Just realized, after all these years, I never ever compared it once nor flipped the phase, not sure it's that important, nor will do any good, as the good ol' saying we keep hearing.. "if it sounds good, then it's good"


*pic got nothing to do with the topic

 

Last edited: Oct 25, 2023

If the aux/sends are important for the sound, i print it them WITH.
Over time, i've spend way way to much time printing dry/wet versions of tracks, and never actually use the "dry" versions in the mix.

Only on vocal leads i almost always do the dry/wet versions just to keep options open.

Always offline bounce.At that point I've listen to the music enough already. Also its great doing it offline, gives youre ears a breather and we need to make some distance to the music and keep the perspective.

 

Realtime vs offline rendering:
- offline can be faster if your computer is capable of it (render an unprocessed audio file and you end up with xx or xxx times faster)
- offline can be slower if you've set your pluggies to a higher offline precision/OS than your CPU can process in realtime.

The latter can abolutely result in a different offline render sound (e.g. 2x realtime, 8x offline OS).

 

Short answer:
Always offline these days. My opinion on the subject mirrors reliefsan's.

Long answer with a bit of off-topic:
CPU efficiency is very important to me but since 99.9% of the time I have to go back and redo something on artists' request, there's nothing realtime listening can do for me. No matter how good a mix/master I feel is, when I decide it's near complete I know I'm actually only halfway done and when they hear it, the other half will be our back-and-forth, and the minor tweaking until we meet halfway.

Maybe it's counterproductive but when I have the chance to have the artist in the same room, I try to let them listen to the material with the project opened as much as possible so I can make the tweaks they want to, without having to export anything.

Through the years I've started to see repeating patterns in the workflow and I eliminate the unnecessary moves. Even if sometimes I want to diversify, when it's work related I don't deviate from the steps as far as artist feedback and exporting back and forth versions before settling for a final is concerned.

I keep the process the same, either in comfort of the studio on the overpowered PC or when I'm with an artist on the road and I'm using my inferior mobile machine.

Traveling and closing the gap between the two machines' workflow is the reason by the way, to start experimenting with channel strips, minimal FX inputs to do stripped down mixing - it's easier on the CPU, easier on the eyes and easier to find and tweak. Sadly, I haven't yet came anywhere near the same efficiency on the road as the separate inserts on the PC. Sometimes I think it's futile and a fool's errand but I'll keep trying.

 

I'm 100% ITB and it's always offline render for me.
Tbh, i never even consider real-time processing at all.
It's been this way for 10+ years.
My CPU isn't amazing (i7-8700, but gonna upgrade before NYE, yay), and so by the time i'm ready to export a mixdown my project is already experience snap-crackle-pop dropouts, so i've got no choice but to offline process.
That's always been the case for me.
And i don't see why anyone would use real-time render anyway unless they had hardware in their chain

In regards to question 6. I think it's worth sending FX auxes and letting the mixer decide if he wants to use it. If it's an essential part of the sound, the mixer will keep it. From the mixer's point of view, you save time using what's already there, and often times the producer/artist chose the FX very intentionally. Why would the mixer wanna come along and wipe out all his hours of work. The artist is the one the mixer is trying to make happy anyway.
That said, if the FX choice sounds shitty then the mixer can decide to scrap it and do his own thing. But at least give them the choice