New to recording--Protools/bouncing/final mix question.

M

Mandolin4Jesus

New member
Hi,

I have been messing around with an Mbox mini 3 and Protools 8 LE and have a few questions if anyone doesn't mind sharing their expertise.

1. Once that I have all songs recorded, I am under the impression that I need to 'bounce' this to disk. Since I am a novice and a student, I have just my laptop (Windows) to use. It might be a dumb question but I don't mind--when I bounce to disk, is it recommended that I bounce to an external HD?

2. Back to the "bouncing"--am I under the correct impression? Is there a thread on here (please don't say 'google it' :facepalm:) that explains the process from recording to mixing to mastering?

Thats all I have for now, I am sure there will be more to come. If I can get my hands on the manual, I'll consult that too. Thanks a lot for your help, I greatly appreciate it! :guitar:
 
1.) Bounce it wherever the heck you want. :p
No, but seriously... It shouldn't matter where you bounce it to. My professors and other engineers have told me they prefer to just create a "MIX" folder inside their session folder and then bounce the final .wav to there, but after that you'd probably want to back up the session to an external hard drive, and then an off-site area (cloud storage or something like that). As far as bouncing options go, just do 16 bit, 44.1 kHz. Convert it after the bounce, that way your CPU isn't trying to crunch a ton of numbers all at once. Just click that bounce button and go grab a coffee (or listen to the mix playing back to make sure you didn't screw anything up... Your choice).
2.) I'm not sure I understand this question as much... Please give a quick rephrase?
 
to answer 2 will require you to google, or search here for a fuller more accurate answer im afraid - as there is soooooooo much to explain. but very very basically

recording > um, record your shizzle.
mixing > setting levels, eq, effects etc
mastering > ensuring your final mix is loud, clear and sounds good in a variety of speakers/set ups.

for both mixing and mastering - depending on hardware/software it can costs thousands, but most DAWs have a basic mastering plug in which you can put on the master output buss once your happy with the mixing stage, and experiment with it. or bounce your track - load it up again in a new project and add the mastering plugin to the track. re bounce.

again this is just basically the process.
 
"If I can get my hands on the manual, I'll consult that too. "

Pro Tools comes with a manual - a .pdf called "Pro Tools Reference Guide". Lots of good info from recording concepts to program specific stuff...
 
You should be able to access the manual ("Pro Tools Reference Guide") by pulling down the help menu while Pro Tools is up and running.
 
MrWrenchey said:
2.) I'm not sure I understand this question as much... Please give a quick rephrase?
Click to expand...

I think I have it answered for the most part--I was actually kind of under the impression that I had to use different software (apart from the Protools 8 that I'm using) to get my final "mastered" product--the song(s) in completed form; thus, I was wondering what to do after bouncing. This recordin business is a lot of work. :guitar: Thanks for your input man!!
 
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