How To Bounce Individual Tracks In Logic Pro

For a long time, Apple’s Logic Pro has been one of the most popular digital audio stations (DAWs) for musicians, songwriters, and producers. The tools available in Logic Pro, fused with many industry-standard stock plugins and samples, make it a near-perfect platform for anyone wishing to execute their sonic ideas and turn them into musical masterpieces.

Imagine a scenario where you’ve meticulously crafted a complex composition with multiple instruments and arrangements. You’ve spent a significant amount of time tuning each track to perfection. For multiple reasons, you might find yourself having to export certain MIDI or audio tracks either within the session or out to share them with a collaborator. This is where bouncing individual tracks comes into play as a critical tool in music creation.

In this post, I will guide you through bouncing tracks in Logic Pro. But before we do that, let’s cover some scenarios where bouncing individual tracks plays a major role in moving forward with your music production process.

Why Should You Bounce Individual Tracks?

There are multiple reasons for bouncing individual tracks in Logic and multiple methods to do so. Bouncing MIDI tracks within the session and turning them into audio tracks is a fundamental step for prepping your project for mixing. Moreover, if you’re using complex software instruments for your MIDI tracks, you might be putting a lot of strain on your computer’s processor. Bouncing MIDI tracks is one of the best ways to manage CPU performance in Logic. This is also true for audio tracks with multiple CPU-hungry plugins and effects.

Another reason for bouncing tracks is to take them out of your project to either use them in another project or to share them with another producer you’re collaborating with. In that case, it is critical to ensure you export each track with the plugins and effects you consciously want on your track.

Tip: capturing vocals that sound professional is a difficult task. Comping is one of the strategies producers use to have a near-perfect vocal track. Click here to learn about how to comp vocals in Logic Pro.

Bouncing Tracks In Place

Whether you have a complex MIDI track or an audio track with a long chain of effects, you might want to bounce them in place to reduce stress on your CPU. To do that:

•  Control-click on the region you want to bounce and hover your pointer on “Bounce and Join.”
•  Select “Bounce in Place…”

You can also do that by selecting the region you want to bounce in place and pressing “Control + B” on your keyboard.

Once you do that, a new window pops up that asks you some questions before bouncing your track. Make sure to name your new track correctly to keep your session organized. If you don’t want your effects chain to bounce with your track, you can select “Bypass Effect Plugins.”

Once you’ve bounced your track, you can go ahead and Freeze the original track to reduce CPU usage.

If you have multiple tracks that you want to bounce and turn into one audio track, you can select them all and press “Control + B.” Logic will bounce them all as one track.

Tip: there are different ways you can create drums in your songs. Logic Pro’s built-in step sequencer allows you to create complex drum patterns in your projects. In another post, I have extensively covered everything you need to know to use the step sequencer in Logic Pro.

Exporting/Stemming Out Tracks

There are multiple methods you can use to do this. One way is to simply solo the tracks you want to export and bounce your project.

•  Press “S” on your keyboard to solo your track.
•  Click “File” from the top-left corner of your screen and hover your pointer on “Bounce.”
•  Select “Project or Section…”

Another, more efficient way to stem out your tracks is to select them and use the Export feature:

•  Click on your track to highlight it.
•  Click “File” from the top-left corner of your screen and hover your pointer on “Export.”
•  Select “1 Track as Audio File…”

If you have tracks in a summing stack and want the stack effects to be present in your export, here’s how you do it:

In the screenshot below, I have an electronic drums track and a clapping track in a summing stack. I’ve applied some EQ to the stack and want to export the claps with that EQ effect.

I can solo the claps and export the summing stack. In this way, I will only stem out the claps while maintaining the effects I applied to my stack.

Final Thoughts On Exporting Individual Tracks In Logic Pro

Bouncing individual tracks is a critical tool that you might want to use for different purposes. I highly recommend bouncing your MIDI instruments in play before starting to mix your project. Not only will this reduce CPU usage, but it is also a mental commitment that stops you from endlessly tweaking your synths and other virtual instruments.

To learn more about producing, mixing, and mastering, check out my Free 6 Pillars To Learn Logic Pro Faster guidebook.