Once you’ve finished a project in Pro Tools (all the clips are where you want them, cross fades and all automation are specified), you need to go through a mixing process to end up with a single stereo file. That process is called bouncing to disk, and it is similar to the mix and render function in Audacity.
First you must select the time range to bounce in the edit window. The easiest way is to double-click on the time ruler running along the top of the tracks. That should select the entire time range that contains clips. I usually add a few seconds to the end by sliding the end selection point in the ruler. The beginning and ending selection points are blue, half arrows.
Once you have selected the time range to bounce, you select the “Bounce to” command from the file menu, and select the Disk option.
That command brings up a dialog.
In general, intro students will already be working with projects at 44.1 kHz sampling rate and 16-bit resolution, so you will not need to worry about conversion options. Make sure that you set the correct bounce source, file type, and format. The bounce source will typically be MainOut 1 – 2 (stereo). You can use either WAV or AIFF as your file type, but you must choose interleaved as your file format. You want one file that contains both Left and Right channels. Unless you are performing a submix, you do not want to import after bounce. You can decide about adding to iTunes or SoundCloud, but any additions to iTunes on a lab computer will not be permanent.
As a final bit of advice, I usually change the default save location from your Audio Files subfolder to the main project folder. Once you start to work on bigger projects you will end up with a lot of soundfiles in your Audio Files folder. It can take some work to find your mix. I put the mix in the main folder, and usually include the name of the project and “mix” in the filename.
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