Bussing/Bouncing/degradation?

Oh, and I forgot the link that anyone interested in this should check out:

I would think that, just like analog, any time you perform digital math on a file such as a level change (vs a file "copy"), there would be some degradation (rounding errors). I haven't tried it, but my guess would be that running an output through, say, 32 aux channels, would result in an audible degradation. How much...I don't know. But I also do a "consolidate selection" to clean up comped tracks instead of bouncing...much, much faster. I think it's a triple-click on any track region to select the whole track. ------------------ LW

nz, usually I take the track that has the edits on it and perform either a gain or normalization function on the track without any real changes. The result is a clean continuous track. No bouncing. Hope this helps. Guitarman ( 0}===;;; p.s. Your stuff sounds pretty good.

My brethren, Thanks so much for the very insightful comments. Embarrassingly enough, I was not familiar with the consolidate region command. This really opens up the options. Also, I have checked out the Vestman site before and actually that is why I posed the question. After reading his site, He is going to get a call for my next project. Just remember, making one continuous take is a way to having bragging rights to show someone and say that "It was done in ONE take, see?"!! :-) Thanks again. nz

Hi, Frank S wrote: "Again the idea that there really is such a thing as a digital "clone" is subject to dispute - there is always errors in copying those 1's and 0's and this could result in generational loss and degradation in sound quality. " This is not true! If this was true, computers wouldn't be able to function correctly, as the programs would crash all the time! Greets, Dan

Guys - I think you kinda missed my point. I was not espousing the idea that digital clones do or don't 'really' exist, as much as I was stating that some people believe this COULD be a problem with digital audio. Vestman's site raises some interesting questions more than it answers them - and that's the only reason I cited it. BTW, I have read interviews with other big name brand mastering engineers saying similar things, and they don't like to do multiple digital copies - maybe its superstition or well trained ears hearing subtle differences- you be the judge. Now DanXX, you know that files get DO corrupted and errors DO occur. And doing complex math sometimes does result in rounding that could change the "sound" or subjectively change audio quality. Does it reallly make a difference - who knows? And I don't know about your computer, but lots of computers I know DO crash all the time ( but obviously not due to file or data corruption ). They obviously are not infallible - so this is a little bit of a silly argurement. I just wanted to raise the question, and see what other people think. Carry on