What Does "Bounce To Clips" Do?

Interesting. I do midi only, but use soft synths, so maybe my clips are audio? Anyway, when I import an old project in to CbB, some of the activity is not visible in the clips pane. So I use the Bounce feature, which makes them visible. Not sure it would have any further use for me, but it sure helps with my imports.

Soft synths will only produce audio clips when they are frozen. You can freeze them then bounce them for permanent audio clips. Once this is done you can actually remove the soft synth without affecting the audio clip it produced.
 
Once frozen you can remove the soft synth and even delete the whole track from the project while still retaining the audio file in the Audio folder. The file can also be dragged into it's own track unaffected by any soft synths.

soens
Soft synths will only produce audio clips when they are frozen. You can freeze them then bounce them for permanent audio clips. Once this is done you can actually remove the soft synth without affecting the audio clip it produced.

That might be helpful when a piece is done. but if you want to revise later on, you would have to insert and route the synth again. Which would be a bear for orchestral music. So I leave them as they are.
Another benefit to converting to audio of course is that you can apply FX directly to each inst. But that creates huge CPU issues, so again in orch. music is to be avoided, unless you have a ridiculous system.

rhenn
Bouncing MIDI clips is somewhat different from bouncing audio: MIDI clips are basically “containers” whose boundaries contain all the MIDI events that are recorded in one pass. If you record a few notes, stop the transport, then record a few more notes, you’ll have two separate MIDI clips. You can then select both clips, and “bounce to clips” to combine the two clips into one. If you record multiple takes over the course of an entire project, you can wind up with dozens of clips on one track, which can be visually confusing, depending on your view settings (clip boundaries on/off, etc.). Also if you have lot of controller data as I frequently do, small clips can be hidden behind larger ones, data appears to be missing when it’s not, etc. For this reason, I often bounce midi clips to clean up the view. One caution: where clips overlap, bouncing can have unwanted effects on controller data, so use caution and be prepared to undo. HTH

Yes, and what I just started doing is selecting all the clips for an inst, then bouncing to clips. I hate to see "dead" areas in the clip pane. This ties everything together in one clip. One problem though: after doing it, I can no longer see thye names of the inst's, even after selecting to see them in options.

soens
Soft synths will only produce audio clips when they are frozen. You can freeze them then bounce them for permanent audio clips. Once this is done you can actually remove the soft synth without affecting the audio clip it produced.

Just for clarification, can produce audio clips from Soft Synths several ways besides just freezing them. Also, if you freeze the track, it IS a permanent audio clip already and doesn't require re-bouncing. If you want the frozen audio to start at zero, simply Slip Edit the midi clip first to start at zero then you can Freeze it and it will be audio. You can delete the frozen tracks Synth and keep the frozen tracks Audi without re-bouncing by un-ticking 'delete associated tracks'. I prefer to disconnect the Synth just in case I wish to change something, re-do or add to.
One of the newer ways to turn Soft Synths to audio is by arming the Record button on the Synth audio track, then hitting the main record button. (realtime records it). You can then mute the midi track with the Synth still connected or disconnect or the Synth from the Synth rack. This keeps all your Synths and Patches handy while freeing up your resources.
Another method to turn Soft Synths to audio which I prefer is Bounce to Track. Simply highlight the Midi track and Synth audio track then hit Bounce to Track (Tracks menu) source category 'Tracks' and either Bounce to a new track or to the Synth audio track or make and name a new one before the Bounce to track step and point it there. I like to do this and like I said Disconnect the Synth from the Synth Rack so as to be able to reconnect to change, add more, or multi-track bounce (drums for example) at a later time. I've been burned by Un-freeze in the past and have lost all synth patches and info, so now I disconnect and reconnect.
Of couse you can export and reimport, but why do that when Bounce to Track Saves you that Step and the step of having to point the export location. Just as a mention though.

Anyways, just trying to clarify and be informative and helpful in the spirit of the forum. ✌️

Bristol_Jonesey

michael diemer

mettelus
A clip is a "window" into the underlying audio file, so bouncing also has a benefit of creating another audio file based on that viewable window. It helps to tidy up CPU load if you have slip-editted clips all over in a project.

I'm not sure I even do slip-editing. Considering I don't even know what it is. Unless I'm doing it Zombie-like, without knowing I'm doing it.

This is when you grab hold of one end of a clip and extend it, either to the right or left
 
This can expose material that previously hidden, thus making it audible once more, or if you choose to slip edit inwards thereby muting whatever events you've hidden.
 
The same applies to both midi clips & audio clips
 
Once you bounce a clip to itself - midi or audio, you will lose the ability to slip edit it outwards to display the data which had been previously hidden.
This may or may not be desirable and in the case of audio, will create a new audio file now based on the revised length, as mettelus described above.

Ah, more mysteries are revealed. I think what I should be doing is slip-editing then, not clip-bouncing, since my goal is to make all my midi visible. I had been afraid to drag those clip ends for fear that it would result in clip cropping, which I thought would erase events.

Blogospherianman
Also, if you freeze the track, it IS a permanent audio clip already and doesn't require re-bouncing.

Anyways, just trying to clarify and be informative and helpful in the spirit of the forum. ✌️

 
I was wrong and edited my previous post. Freezing creates an audio clip and a file in the Audio folder. However, to my way of thinking, neither freezing nor bouncing will create a "permanent clip". Within the project a frozen "clip", bounced or not, can be unfrozen with the click of a button making it disappear, while the audio file remains in the folder. Freezing it a 2nd time creates a 2nd audio file in the folder. Bouncing it will create a 3rd file in the folder. But when unfreezing, they all get removed from the clips pane.
 
Side note: If you don't save the project after freezing a soft synth, it's audio files will disappear from the folder.
 
The OP was a bit vague but now I see Michael is referring to MIDI tracks that have overlapping takes, which can be created while recording new parts or manually entering notes over an existing clip. Newly added notes will create a new clip that covers the previous one making it invisible.
 
So the simple answer would be: MIDI Bouncing takes all the "selected" clips in a track and merges them into one big clip making any invisible parts visible again.

Bounce to clips = healing clips.
In other words you have several split clips, clips spread out that are not joined, Bouncing to clips will make them all one solid track. Its good for house cleaning, rather than having 10 clips in one track, heal them to one whole track.
 
All extended slip edit data will be lost on audio and midi clips.

Bouncing will not discard data. Stretching a clip beyond the 1st or last data point only affects the visual. There's nothing to lose which is why bouncing trims them off.
 
Side note: Stretching the front of every clip to the -0- time line point is helpful when exporting the lot as stems to be used in another DAW. This way they all have the same starting point.

michael diemer

chuckebaby
Bounce to clips = healing clips.
In other words you have several split clips, clips spread out that are not joined, Bouncing to clips will make them all one solid track. Its good for house cleaning, rather than having 10 clips in one track, heal them to one whole track.
 
All extended slip edit data will be lost on audio and midi clips.

What exactly what would be lost? Controller events, for example? If I do only midi, is this a concern for me, or does it only apply to audio?
 

 
To answer your question, no controller data is lost.
 
I personally use bounce to clips very frequently on all my midi clips to prevent over lapping accidents, double notes, making drag+select more accurate, exc.
 
Also of important note, if you have a project that crashes and will no longer open.. your midi is gone for good.
There is no way to recover it like there is audio files (inside the audio folder).
This is why I always use bounce to clips on my midi tracks and save them in another project folder as 1 whole clip.
 
 

michael diemer

chuckebaby

michael diemer

chuckebaby
Bounce to clips = healing clips.
In other words you have several split clips, clips spread out that are not joined, Bouncing to clips will make them all one solid track. Its good for house cleaning, rather than having 10 clips in one track, heal them to one whole track.
 
All extended slip edit data will be lost on audio and midi clips.

What exactly what would be lost? Controller events, for example? If I do only midi, is this a concern for me, or does it only apply to audio?
 

 
 
 
To answer your question, no controller data is lost.
 
I personally use bounce to clips very frequently on all my midi clips to prevent over lapping accidents, double notes, making drag+select more accurate, exc.
 
Also of important note, if you have a project that crashes and will no longer open.. your midi is gone for good.
There is no way to recover it like there is audio files (inside the audio folder).
This is why I always use bounce to clips on my midi tracks and save them in another project folder as 1 whole clip.
 
 

Thanks. And great advice re: the bouncing to audio. so far I haven't permanently lost any projects, but it would only take one to seriously impact my well-being. I need to start doing that!

No problem Michael
I bounce all my midi clips and export them to a Writing project folder (not Cakewalk project folder)
Its my personal directory folder for each song I make, I create a duplicate folder for each song with data inside.
This includes "Full midi clips", "partial midi clips" (for different versions) and "Text files" with "Song notes".
No audio though, that's all stored in the Cakewalk project folder and can be restored in case of crash failure.
 
The only audio clips I store in my Writing project folder are bounced Synth tracks.
This is incase years from now those VST instruments are no longer compatible, at least I have the audio tracks to fall back on.
 
I hope I didn't make this too confusing, to summarize...
I have always created a personal directory for my songs. In this directory, there are many folders..one for each song I create. This way if im using another DAW in the future, or compatibility is an issue, I have a good back up plan. The directory is small in size because midi files are small in size (sometimes just merely KB's).