I almost always bounce internally before exporting.
To do this select the tracks and the time range you want to bounce and choose bounce to tracks.
I usually use Triangular Dithering when I'm bouncing to tracks, and Powr-3 when exporting.
Bouncing internally gives you the visual of the wave-form, which can be useful in guiding your mix.
You can turn on the generation of this waveform on each bus so as you playback it creates an orange waveform ghost without actually writing any wave files.
Additionally, I can keep multiple versions for comparison as I go and use the exclusive solo feature on the Control Bar to compare mixes. If you remember to new Mix Scene using the Mix Recall feature when you create each bounce then you can always return to a bounce to make tweaks. Usually it's forward only (old bounces don't matter) but not always.
When you bounce the tracks, be sure to route directly to your interface. The default tends to be Master Bus and if you bounce with a bunch of FX on the master bus (like limiter etc) and then route to the master bus, you are applying all those FX twice. So bounce, and route to the interface.
I usually trim the edges of the track (clip fades etc) on the bounce. Then click the clip and do File > Export.
Make sure the clip you export isn't muted or you will export a silent wave.
post edited by gswitz - 2015/08/09 21:29:48