Automating Bouncing Stems

I posted this as a reply in the Logic Pro section but I thought it might be useful for people looking here:

Okay here is a first draft of the stems automation that I set up using Keyboard Maestro. It's basically a macro of key commands for the stem bouncing process. It does require the application Keyboard Maestro.

Feedback welcome - my aim is to improve this process.

I have attached keyboard Maestro Macro file.

Stem Output (Prompt).kmmacros.zip

Great! Thanks for this.

Just wonder, if the same is possible with the Automator?

Hi Felix. Having just taken my first tumble down the KM rabbithole, I came across your yt video and love the concept!

I replaced the 90sec delay with a pause until the image of the "Bouncing..." text was no longer in the front window screen. That way if bounces are quicker or slower they still work and no time is wasted.

Hey Guys! So I took the liberty of modifying it to add some more error checks and also a way to name the Stem folder amongst other things.

Cheers!

R

📀 Multi-track.Stem Bounce - ROD.kmmacros

Edit: You might need to modify the timeouts to tailor to your computer’s performance. There’s also a custom shortcut that needs to be set in Logic for the “Close/Disclose track stacks” option.

Just tested your macro and unfortunately it failed. I've spent the past two years becoming familiar with KM, so here's one that works. (dead link removed by moderator)

NB: There are two custom key commands in actions I've labelled in green for ease of visibility. Change these to your own and you should be good to go.

If you'd like to see the fruits of my trip down the KM rabbithole, you'll find this and other handy macros over at this thread.

What specifically failed?

It works great on my end (60+ tracks bounced)

Just tried yours and it doesnt even start , cant handle collapsed track stacks or repeat track names, doesnt check for when the previous track bounce is done to minimize process time, cant handle multi window/screen layouts, doesnt add identifiers to bounced tracks so that they appear in the same order when imported into a new project etc.

Did you test it on another computer? Maybe you need to modify the timeouts to tailor for your computer’s performance. Also the shortcut that handles track stacks needs to be set in Logic Pro.

I have added better comments to mine so you can have a look and use that as a reference to make yours work.

📀 Multi-track.Stem Bounce - ROD.kmmacros

Cheers!

R

Yours got as far as navigating to the desktop in the Bounce dialogue, just before it's meant to create a new folder.

I built that macro this morning after seeing your version, so I might have rushed it a bit. I've updated the link. See if it works now.

I'm a bit confused; you said it didn't start and then listed things it couldn't do. How would you know if it didn't start? Closing each track stack automatically before bouncing, is easy to include, but I wouldn't want to as I may need to bounce tracks from within stacks as part of the batch. It's not hard to hit the "Close all Track Stacks" shortcut beforehand. Nobody requested unique naming, and I name all my tracks properly so didn't include it in the first version. Seems to be important to you, so it's in the new one as a simple numbered prefix.

Regarding the additions you made when editing your comment: Yes, it does check when the previous bounce is done ("Wait for Bounce to Finish"). Yes it can handle multi-window and screen layouts ("Bring Tracks Window to Front"). The identifiers are covered in the track numbering system.

I should mention I'm on Logic 10.6.3 as I'm still on Catalina, so if you're on 10.7.x, that might explain any issues. I try to avoid using found image conditions for this reason.

Yours got as far as navigating to the desktop in the Bounce dialogue, just before it's meant to create a new folder.

You might need to tailor the timeouts for your computer's speed.

I'm a bit confused; you said it didn't start and then listed things it couldn't do. How would you know if it didn't start?

By looking at it inside of Keyboard Maestro Editor.

It does handle collapsed track stacks (they're no different to regular tracks when bouncing).

This is incorrect, if they are closed, your macro will not disclose them and bounce the contained tracks. There's also no way to check the closed/disclosed status of the stacks.

Nobody requested unique naming, and I name all my tracks properly so didn't include it in the first version.

It's not unique naming, its a prefix to have the tracks order themselves as they where when imported into a new session. Saves a lot of time on commercial studios...

Regarding the additions you made when editing your comment: Yes, it does check when the previous bounce is done ("Wait for Bounce to Finish").

Do you mean on mine? Yeah it does, it helps minimize the time the process takes.

Yes it can handle multi-window and screen layouts ("Bring Tracks Window to Front").

No it can't with just that action, theres Tracks window views in custom setups that dont show the complete multi track for the project, when making my macro I tried to also account for them by launching the standard "Cmd 1" window thats default for Logic Pro, this way any shenaningans with windows are ruled out.

I should mention I'm on Logic 10.6.3 as I'm still on Catalina, so if you're on 10.7.x, that might explain any issues.

Yeah this could be part of the issue. Although we tested mine on 4 computers here at the studio and it worked great.

This is incorrect, if they are closed, your macro will not disclose them and bounce the contained tracks. There's also no way to check the closed/disclosed status of the stacks.

This is a misunderstanding on my part. At that time, I thought by "handle collapsed track stacks" you meant "bounce them". I didn't realise you wanted to automatically open or close them. That's not something that would fit with my way of working; I prefer to choose the disclosure status of stacks I'm bouncing manually, as I may or may not want to bounce their constituent tracks individually. This is all personal preference.

It's not unique naming, its a prefix to have the tracks order themselves as they where when imported into a new session. Saves a lot of time on commercial studios...

I don't understand what you mean. It numbers the tracks and a byproduct of that is that they're all uniquely named. So if you're bouncing two tracks called "Guitar" Logic won't need to ask whether you want to overwrite the file. I'm not sure what you're disagreeing with here.

Do you mean on mine? Yeah it does, it helps minimize the time the process takes.

I meant in mine. I'd already covered "Wait for bounce to finish".

Regarding screensets, your hotkey opens a new Tracks window for me. I'm not sure if that's intentional. There's no need to open a new window and resize it via KM, as recalling screensets does this automatically. Regardless, as I'm not using any found images, I don't need to do this. As long as a Tracks window is open (and it's pretty likely to be if you're about to bounce, wouldn't you say?), it's all good.

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Regarding screensets, your hotkey opens a new Tracks window for me. I'm not sure if that's intentional.

Why would anything in the shortcut not be intentional?

The whole point of doing all the checks mine goes through is that it can be used by almost anyone under any screen settings and doesnt depend on your particular screensets, track disclosure, window view settings, window size etc.

Seems like yours works well for you but might not be ideal for everyone else (still won't run on any of our computers).

The whole point of macros is to work less and have to do less manual setup, sure you can say all the faults in yours are "personal preference" or that you'll modify them manualy, but i feel its more efficient to have all of this done for you, and later if there are some tracks that are bounced but not used you can discard them, better to have them and not use them than to not have them in an incomplete process or to rely on the user manually going through more processes and it's byproduct which is user error.

Youre free to take my shortcut and modify it as you like, implement it, take credit for it, whatever! The whole point is to help people out that are doing this professionally.

*For anyone arriving late to the thread, here's the Macro:

📀 Multi-track.Stem Bounce - ROD.kmmacros

In commercial studios reducing user error and having to rely less on manual setup and setup time for the bounce is priceless. Last session we exported was 105 tracks (4mins long aprox) in 30 minutes. Have you tested yours?

Why would anything in the shortcut not be intentional?

Yes, if your shortcut is mapped differently on my system.

The whole point of doing all the checks mine goes through is that it can be used by almost anyone under any screen settings and doesnt depend on your particular screensets, track disclosure, window view settings, window size etc.

I understand the intention, but my point is that if you don't use found images in your macro, the screen configuration doesn't matter. I want to choose whether or not I'm bouncing stacks and their constituent parts or just the stacks on a case-by-case basis, so I don't need to check for a found image of the stack disclosure triangle. Not everyone likes to work the same way.

Seems like yours works well for you but might not be ideal for everyone else (still won't run on any of our computers).

Yours didn't work on mine until I went through it step by step and adjusted it. It's best practice to use conditional pauses where possible. Rather than pause for a specified interval, pause until a button exists or something equally tangible. That way it's more likely to work on someone else's system. Have you tried to figure out why mine isn't working on your system? Have you debugged to see where it fails? Many macros with some level of complexity will take some adjustment to play ball with someone else's setup.

sure you can say all the faults in yours are "personal preference"

Yes, and I'm right to say that, because if I wanted to program it to do what you're trying to do, I'd do that. I don't.

its more efficient to have all of this done for you

Not if you don't want it done for you.

better to have them and not use them

Tell that to a mix engineer. The last thing I or they want is a load of extraneous tracks to wade through and sort out.

Youre free to take my shortcut and modify it as you like, implement it, take credit for it

Not sure which shortcut you mean.

In commercial studios reducing user error and having to rely less on manual setup and setup time for the bounce is priceless. Last session we exported was 105 tracks (4mins long aprox) in 30 minutes. Have you tested yours?

Yes, I've tested mine and it works. It doesn't work on your system, so if you've got any KM experience you'll be able to figure out why in no time. I've been in and out of commercial studios for the last 25 years and my family owns one of the UK's most famous ones, so I understand the priorities when working with large sessions, and they don't always include wholesale export of everything in a session at all costs, no matter the circumstances. You might as well add a "Bounce all" checkbox to the prompt that overrides the user-specified number variable. In fact there's no point including a number at all if your intention is to bounce everything in a session. Unless I'm bouncing in real time which is hardly ever these days, I use Export all Tracks as Audio Files anyway.

I wrote this macro because the OP wanted to "improve this process". You'll notice that his macro doesn't do some of the things you're describing either. If he'd asked for them, I'd have included them. I did my best in about an hour this morning, trying to put to use what I've learned in the past couple of years. Please don't mistake my conscious choices for 'flaws' just because they don't fit the very specific criteria that you have in your head.

Thanks for sharing this! It's not totally what I was looking for, but with the help from seeing a finished "code", I managed to create the perfect one for me. It's the same concept as the "Bounce Butler", but an almost free alternative. I do alot of shorter podcast-bounces with different versions, so I got tired of starting new bounces all the time and sitting around to start the next one. So here is my attempt to make an auto-bounce of multiple projects. Please let me know if there are any suggestions for improvements!

https://forum.keyboardmaestro.com/t/auto-bounce-macro-for-logic-pro-x-v10-0-2/27656?u=linnmaritae