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Quality loss after bouncing stems multiple times?


JoshJ

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If I produce in one project then bounce stems and do a demo mix in another project and then bounce again and send (semi) mixed stems to a pro for mixing, is there any significant loss in audio quality from bouncing twice? How many times would you have to bounce a stem before losing quality?
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While in theory there is always a small amount of noise added when bouncing from 32 bit floating point (the internal resolution of Logic Pro's audio engine) to 24 bit audio files, the loss of quality is not significant as long as your signal level is reasonable, meaning it's not peaking at - 30 dBFS for example.

 

Still I wouldn't recommend doing it hundreds of times, but for all practical reasons such as the example you've suggested, this shouldn't be a problem.

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Consider this: In the olden days, many recordings to tape had been bounced between tracks, often several generations deep, with the recording to the master tape being even one more generation. A skilled engineer could pull this off in a way that literally no one would question the quality of the final album, even if all this was inevitably followed by the actual mastering process through yet another and quite drastic operation when cutting to acetate, of which yet another negative print copy was made only to then use that to press a black blob of vinyl into the actual record. So every record you could buy was at least a 5th generation copy of the actual recording, with back and forth transfer between electric, magnetic and mechanic, no less.

 

Bottom line: You are allowed to digitally bounce a track until the cows come home.

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In fact I was worried you might experience this. Did you welcome the cows, asked how their night was, checked if they needed anything, offered a drink perhaps ? If you missed any of these opportunities, then I'm afraid you can no longer bounce tracks.

 

...in which case, i can bounce as many tracks as i want. 8-)

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