Making Audio CDs of your ProTools Session
Ø All CD'S are not created equal. There are "R" types and "RW" types. R type cd's can only be recorded once, RW's can be rewritten. ONLY DATA CAN BE REWRITTEN! RW’s are a little more expensive, and will not always be readable by CD-Rom drives (although they are readable by every one in our plant.) RW's are never readable on home CD audio players. For this reason it never makes sense to burn AIFF (Audio Interchange File Format) files-the kind of files store-bought audio CD's use, to CDRW's. If you want to use CDRW's, use them to back up session files and audio files, so you can write over them as you make changes.
Ø Once any CD has been written (burned) with audio wave information, like something you listen to on your CD player, that info is set in stone!! ONLY DATA, LIKE INFO FILES AND SD2, MAY BE REWRITTEN OVER! Once a CD is "burned" you may not add information to it. Anything you write over, like when you re-write a data and file CD or write audio waves over data, erases what was there. A "burn" session is a whole new CD. BEWARE, and LABEL your CD's. Bring extras.
Ø When you want to "burn" an audio wave CD from your Pro-Tools session, you must first "BOUNCE" that track, or a piece of it, or multiple tracks, to a CD-playable form from within the ProTools session.
Ø Bouncing tracks to make a backup or audio CD of your session or part of your session.There are two methods for this, each with different objectives. First, you can bounce several tracks or portions of tracks into one in order to create one, "consolidated" audio file that takes up less room than your many others, which you will then back up as a Macintosh file using the instructions in another handout.
Or, second, you can make an audio CD of your project or part of your project that will play back on any CD player. A word of warning: the utility of this procedure for transferring a synched audio track into some other program is somewhat dubious. When you make a burn to a CD, you lose the sync-sound certainty provided by the ProTools hardware/software/video signal/timecode configuration. CD's spin at whatever internal clock the CD player has, so if sync is critical, this is not a recommended procedure. At the very least, you should include on your CD-burn front and back sync pops that match with the "2" and "FINISH" frames of your videotape. However, even these do not guarantee that your CD copy will remain in sync.
Ø Bouncing:
1. Bouncing is simply playing back and rewriting to disk different ProTools regions in the configuration they have in your session; it’s like playing back your session or part of your session and digitizing that output at the same time. Bouncing creates a single file of the tracks selected.
2. You can choose tracks in different ways.
3. Remember: unless you select a portion of a track, all of that track from beginning to end will be part of your "bounce." Be precise in what you choose. Be aware of how long your tracks really are, and consider whether there will be room on your destination partition for this bounce. Check out both your beginning and end on the tracks. The longest track will determine the length of the "bounce" CD.
4. Bouncing: once you have chosen your track or tracks, you choose the "Bounce to disk" command from the "File" menu. The “Bounce” dialogue window will open.
a) Choose "mono" in the "Bounce Type" category if you want all files mixed to one "mono" track. Choose "stereo" if you want a stereo CD. Choose "split stereo" only if you are going back into ProTools.
b) Under "Bounce Options," choose "Convert after Bounce" if you plan to make an audio CD of the bounce. If you are bouncing to consolidate files within your session, choose "Import into session after bounce". If you are importing back into your session, skip step C.
c) Click the “Settings” button. IF YOU ARE BOUNCING IN ORDER TO CREATE AN AUDIO CD, YOU MUST CREATE THE BOUNCE AS AN AIFF FILE. In the pulldown menus, select "AIFF." "16 bit," "44100", conversion quality "Best" If you are bouncing to use the file with another Digidesign-based application such as Avid, or to use it later (minus time code information) in a ProTools session without having to convert it, select “Sound Designer II” under the first menu. (All the other menus should be the same.)
d) If applicable, pick "16 bit" in the "Resolution" window.
e) In "Bounce Source" choose an output pair, 1&2, or 3&4, etc. Remember when you selected which output pair you wanted to bounce in the earlier part of this handout?
f) Once you have chosen your bounce parameters you select the "Bounce" button at the bottom of the screen. The computer will open a new window and prompt you to choose where to save and how to name your bounced information.
Ø Creating an Audio CD of your Bounce
1. From Toast’s "Format" menu choose "Audio CD."
2. In the "Toast" window, choose "Audio" instead of "Data." This opens a "Track Selection" window.
3. Open the hard-drive partition (Yours) that contains the file/files you just "bounced" from ProTools.
4. Select the files by clicking on them. Then drag them into the Toast "Track Selection" window in the order you want them to appear on the finished CD.
5. Don't worry. You can re-arrange order by clicking on tracks and dragging them where you want in descending order. This order will be the order of the CD.
6. You can change the default pause between tracks, 2 sec., by clicking on the 2 sec. words and then choosing from a pop-down menu. Four seconds is about standard.
7. Select "Create" button in lower right hand corner.
8. Put a CD in the Burner.
9. Hit "Write CD" in the Adaptec Toast Window.
10. Choose "Write Disk" when prompted.