"Printing"?

[Swampy]

When producers talk of printing a track, do they mean that's the way that certain track will stay? Unable to change? Is this a Pro-Tools "word"? Like an action only called that in P-T? I use Reaper. Wasn't sure if it meant the same as "Render".

 

[Johnny the Kid]

Re: "Printing"?

When producers talk of printing a track, do they mean that's the way that certain track will stay? Unable to change? Is this a Pro-Tools "word"? Like an action only called that in P-T? I use Reaper. Wasn't sure if it meant the same as "Render".

I believe that when someone talks about a "printed" track, it refers to when you mix a track (or tracks) onto a new stereo track in a DAW. It's not a strictly Pro Tools function.

 

[ginormous]

Re: "Printing"?

"Print" and "render" are interchangeable in this context, especially when referring to a track with effects.

Once it's been printed/rendered, it can't be undone.

 

[LLL]

Re: "Printing"?

Some DAWs (Adobe Audition for ex) allow you to render the track and un-render with the push of a button (you can go back and forth).

Mainly for keeping the CPU cycles down (all that processing of plugins, etc on each track adds up).

 

[TwilightOdyssey]

Re: "Printing"?

LLL nailed it; rendering can certainly be used for mixing down a multitrack, but it is track-selectable. Printing or bouncing down makes a 2 channel mix down of anything passing through the master bus.

 

[Kamanda~SD]

Re: "Printing"?

^ Yes. 'Printing' referred to when the 2 channel mix down was 'printed' to tape, to then be sent off to mastering.

A further note on LLL's point, alot of DAW's refer to that as 'freezing' a track as well.

 

[Mincer]

Re: "Printing"?

Yeah, I think these days, most modern DAWs will let you 'undo'. You can 'freeze' tracks (temp render) them, to save CPU. But modern DAWs don't force you to make decisions, which is strange when you came from 4 track cassettes, where decisiveness was part of the creative process.