Exporting Pro Tools tracks to wav?

A

airbagtester

New member
This is probably a stupid question, but I don't know anything about Pro Tools or most DAWs:

My band recently recorded about 20 songs with a guy at a small basement studio, and the singer wants to have somebody else mix and master it. The tracks were captured on Pro Tools and rough mixed, but the person mastering it does not use Pro Tools and (I think) needs all the raw .wav tracks on a thumb drive or something.

What files do I need to ask him for? Do I ask him to "please export all the separate tracks to 24bit 44.1 khz wav format and put it on this thumb drive?" Will that work? What about any of the panning/eq settings? I guess we don't get that?

I don't even want to get into the fact that IMO it would really be easier for the same studio to mix and master it that recorded us in the first place. Do people usually do this sort of thing i.e. "please give us the raw tracks so we can take them to someone else?" BTW we did already pay in full for the recording time.
 
Hi there.

A few things to note here.

If they're rough mixed, they aren't ready for mastering.
A mastering guy will (almost always) work from a bounced stereo wav of your session.
Don't mean to sound pedantic, but it clears it up for everyone to be on the same page.

If you need someone to continue mixing, it's a million times easier to get someone who uses ProTools, or stay with the original guy until it's finished.
I strongly urge you to do one of those, but if it's not an option, here's what you're left with.


There are two main things to do.

Either select your entire session and go to edit > consolidate.
This will press down all your cuts, edits, fades etc and create a new whole audio file for every track.
This is important, as all your new regions will start at 0. It makes lining up in a new DAW seamless.

Now select one of the new regions and go to file > Export. It gives you options for AAF or something else.
I assume that's some kind of reference file, but don't worry, it'll export a full wav too.
Do this for every track.
Be sure to select right right settings. eg, 24 bit, 48khz. (Amended)

NB: THIS WILL NOT print any eqs, reverbs, tuners etc. No effects are printed.
Do this if you want your new guy to start from scratch.



The other way is simpler, but time consuming.
One by one, solo and bounce each track.
Solo the kick, bounce the session, call it kick.wav
solo the snare, bounce the session, call it snare.wav etc.

This will take the length of the song X the number of tracks, but it will print everything. Effects, volume settings etc.
Stereo tracks will be bounced as stereo tracks with this method.
When you're bouncing, be sure to pick wav. Probably 24bit 48khz is a safe bet.


If you have the luxury of just moving on to another ProTools guy, just burn the entire session folder to a DVD.
Make sure it's the folder that contains 'audio files', 'fade files', the session file etc.

If your session is massive, you can remove old takes that weren't used in the region viewer down the right hand side.
Go to the drop down menu > select all unused audio, then go back in and select delete.
ProTools will ask if you're sure for each and every file. If you press alt and click delete, it will stop asking you.

There may be a tool for converting sessions for other software, but I have never used one.
Maybe someone else can cover that?

PS. If you're looking for a ProTools guy to mix for you, just PM me.
 
Last edited:
Steenamaroo said:
Now go to the session folder and copy the wav files that match your new names.
There should be one for every mono track, and two for every stereo track.
Click to expand...

I believe you can select and Export audio files right from Pro Tools' session file window that's usually along the right side of the session window. I don't know if this is easier or not.
 
Thanks! That helps a lot. I think I'll probably go with the "consolidate" option and ask him if he wouldn't mind doing that.

I felt kind of crappy going with someone else to work on it further other than the studio we used, but the singer is kind of in charge of the band and he is dead set on using this other guy. And unfortunately the singer doesn't know anything about recording. Since I know a small fraction more about recording than he does he asked me to get the tracks from the studio.

On the other hand, maybe I'll call the other person (i.e. the fellow the singer wants to use) and ask him what he wants first just to be sure a "consolidate" will be the right thing for him.

Thanks again for explaining.
 
airbagtester said:
Thanks! That helps a lot. I think I'll probably go with the "consolidate" option and ask him if he wouldn't mind doing that.

I felt kind of crappy going with someone else to work on it further other than the studio we used, but the singer is kind of in charge of the band and he is dead set on using this other guy. And unfortunately the singer doesn't know anything about recording. Since I know a small fraction more about recording than he does he asked me to get the tracks from the studio.

On the other hand, maybe I'll call the other person (i.e. the fellow the singer wants to use) and ask him what he wants first just to be sure a "consolidate" will be the right thing for him.

Thanks again for explaining.
Click to expand...

He may want to copy the session before consolidating, or be prepared to undo, or not save any of the changes if you want to keep the session backed up in its original form.
 
airbagtester said:
On the other hand, maybe I'll call the other person (i.e. the fellow the singer wants to use) and ask him what he wants first just to be sure a "consolidate" will be the right thing for him.

Thanks again for explaining.
Click to expand...

I'd bullshit the singer! :p In fact, you might not even need to.
Tell him it's a costly operation, in terms of time and money.
Say you expect it's going to cost £XX.XX just to get the copies of the wavs bounced out.

That gives you a little more weight when recommending you stick with the original guy.

I didn't mention saving or undoing, but BSG is completely right. Take every precaution. :)
 
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