Bouncing tracks...

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microchip

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I am currently in the process of mastering my first project. I feel that mastering the overall disc's sound would be much easier if I bounced all my individual tracks of each song into one track and then worked on mastering on that track as a whole. My worry though is that the amount of quality lost in the bouce is not worth it and that I can do much better 'specific' mastering on the individual tracks of a song rather than one bounced track containing all the tracks.

Opinions?
 
I don't really understand the advantage fo what you want to do, but hey - whatever works for ya....... ;)

If it's a digital copy or clone, it won't make a difference -- but analog, you'd seriously have to question how feasible that really is - sound quality will definitely degrade -- only YOU can tell if the degradation is within an acceptable margin for what you want to do.

Bruce
 
I'm sorry, I was tired when I wrote this post...I should have mentioned that yes, I am doing this on Cakewalk on my computer.

So, according to the last post, since I am bouncing digitally on my computer it will not make a difference?
 
microchip,

Why are you mastering on one track. If you want your songs in stereo, you need a left and right 2 track master, unless I miss read your post.

boardman
 
People talking about stereo has left me a little confused...

When I record a track, I already have a left and right input for a 'stereo track'. So by setting the pan in the track before the bouncing would carry over into a bounced track would it not?
 
Micro,

You have lost me. When you say track, are you talking about individual tracks or are you refering to a track as a complete song? I've never heard of making a stereo master on one track.
Unless I''ve missed something, that is not possible.
 
I think what you are asking if you should mix down all of the individual tracks of a song to one stereo file, before it is mastered? If this is your question, I think the answer is yes. but it seems like you might be confused with the terms mixing and mastering.

Larry
 
Okay, here goes micro.

Lets say you have just recorded 8 tracks on a 16 track recorder. Now you want to mix these 8 tracks. You eq, pan, fx, etc.... When you have these 8 tracks sounding the way you want them, you mix them down to 2 tracks, lets say track 13 and 14. When you mix them down to 13 and 14 you would pan 13 hard left and 14 hard right to keep everything panned on the original 8 tracks. Now you have a 2 track stereo mix. of the original 8 tracks. This is mixdown.

Mastering is a process where you now tweak (sort of speak) tracks 13 and 14 (mixdown) and record them to tracks 15 and 16. Again 15 hard left and 16 hard right. This keeps everything panned across the sound field.

Mastering is usually where you make sure everything is normalized, eq'd, compressed. It is an art that is very important in the recording process. It is not absolutely nessesary if you like the sound of your 2 track mixdown. A lot of people will take their 2 track mixdown and send it to a mastering lab. The mastering lab then does these tweaks with very high grade equipment and personel. And they charge you for it, but they can make or break your recording in this process.

I think this is what you are asking. Of course along with the question about loosing quality in the bounce which Bluebear has already answered.
 
I think I can clear everything up here...

I am recording from a synth...I have a left and right channel going from my synth into my soundcard. Then, when I record one individual track into Cakewalk, there is a left and right input from the synth for each track. Each on of these tracks has its own setting for trim and pan which I set after I record the track. So, when I bounce down all my tracks into one track, the pan settings that I individually placed on all the tracks individually before the bounce are already in place.

Then, using just the one bounced track I can master the 'entire' layout better.

Now does it make sense?

**I am still confused as to how people are classifying stereo recording though...here's an example of what I mean...

On each individual track within Cakewalk, you can choose your input from the soundcard as mono or as stereo. When I record from the synth in mono, the entire tracks sounds mono. However, when I record from the synth using left and right inputs, then each track is, in a way, already in stereo (this sounds better, and when I play sounds on the left side of the keyboard the sound goes to the left, and when I play the upper end of the keyboard, the sounds are on the right, and the sound is much better this way). Again, this is for each track I record before any bouncing is done.

So, while I do understand that panning tracks to left and right is considered stereo, each track recorded is also a stereo track within itself (when using 2 separate inputs). And if the settings for each separate track are also adjusted before the bounce, then no further mixing should be done to create a stereo track after the bounce.

Is everyone's head spinning yet?? I will stop here for now.
 
microchip said:
I feel that mastering the overall disc's sound would be much easier if I bounced all my individual tracks of each song into one track and then worked on mastering on that track as a whole.
Click to expand...

Isn't that what "mastering" is anyway?... work on one (stereo) track as a whole. If you worked on individual tracks, you'ld still be editing/producing.
 
I consider mastering to be creating and finalizing a group of works to be recorded together and to have an overall 'feel' to the set. To me, mastering is perfecting the overall grouping of songs in which that when they are recorded, the track order, timing, fade-ins, fade-outs, volume, and the sound of each track 'gels' with all the rest of the tracks in that group. Up to this point, I have been mastering songs by individual tracks because I might have a song that sounds good, except for one track might be too bright...so rather than affecting the 'good' tracks, I go and adjust only the track that would be too bright. I then re-listen to the entire group of songs and go from there.

Up to this point I have not bounced any tracks to do my mixing/mastering. When I export my music from Cakewalk to a wave file, I do it from all the separate tracks that were recorded, and not from one, single bounced track. I feel that when you do bounce your tracks and then attempt to master them, if there is a problem with just one track within the bounced collection of tracks, there is no way to go back and adjust only that one track. I guess that is my fear. (And the original item I mentioned, that sound quality would be lost).

And so I ask everyone, do you all bounce down to your one or two tracks and then master, or do some of you still do it by working with individual tracks?

As for my method, 1st I record each song and then mix and perfect each song by itself by tweaking the tracks to the way I want them. Then I listen to the entire group of songs and go back and work with each track of each song until they all go together. So really, either way would work I would think.
 
oh, I understand the whole thread now... whew!

Typically i would listen to each one before I did anything (also listening to them in a different order... it's funny what it does you your mood).

yeah, the music usually tells you what you need to do to it if you keep an open mind. I would imagine that most people would say 'individually'.

- heavy stuff
 
ok micro u are using words sometimes its getting confusing,and
hope u dont get this as an offensive reply.just clarifying dosnt mean u already dont know it or so.


multitracking=tracking,paning,voluming,fxing etc.etc.=mixing


mixdown=dumping the final mix on two tracks stereo=dat,cd,mini disc etc.


mastering=think about u are polishing your shoes for the final dance.


having said that about shoe polishing, ofcourse a lot goes with mastering too,as mentioned above, it could break or make your music,but if the actual mix is done good its realy minimal on the mastering side of the isle.so much can be done once its mixeddown. it better be mixed at least ecceptable.with 5.1 channels i guess that will be a challange itself but i will let the new generation worry about it and me listen. lol
 
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