How to Export in Pro Tools 8

It is very easy to export your audio in Pro Tools 8 to location of your choice on your computer. First you will need to determine what audio you would like to export. Is it a single region, many regions or from start to end of you song? If it is individual or groups of regions you would like to save then this is using a feature called export but if you would like all the audio heard from a specific time period, either beginning to end or any part in between you will need to use a feature called bounce.  Bouncing records all the effects added to the track where as Exporting does not.  If you want to export using effects you will need to use the Audio Suite instead of adding the effect directly in the insert chain.

Start by naming the region or regions you wish to export by double clicking in the lower 50% of the region you wish to rename or single clicking then Hold Command+Shift+R. After they have all been named you can either export them all at once or one at a time. If you have paid the $20 to enable MP3 exporting you may want export the regions seperately so that you can give them different ID3 tags. Select all the regions you want to export at once and Press Command+Shift+K.

Now you may choose the type of file you want to save your region as. If you plan to use the audio for video you will want to change to 48K otherwise 44.1K is the standard for audio. If you have chosen 24-bit as your recording preference when you started your session you can now export as 24-bit or 16-bit. 16-bit is the standard for CDs but you may want to save as 24-bit for other projects. If you started your session as 16-bit you could export at 24bit but this will not add anymore audio information or sound better, it will just be a larger file. You may also choose stereo or mono. I generally use whatever the file actually is when I am exporting. So if you are exporting a mono file I normally do not export it as stereo simply because I do not have a need to do so, but the option is for you to decide. Now choose your folder and press export.

Unlike when you export in Pro Tools, you will not rename the regions before bouncing to disk. You simply need to highlight from the beginning of where you want the audio to start till the end. All un-muted tracks will be heard in this one bounced file you are creating. No tracks may be armed for recording or Pro Tools will let you know that it will not bounce until you un-arm them. After you have made your selections Hold Command+Option+B.

You can now all of the same selections as exporting with the addition of converting while or after bouncing. I like to convert after bouncing because it gives you a little more buffer while bouncing just in case you run low on your buffer.

Once you press Bounce you will be asked what to name the file and where to store it.