Q: “I have a 100-minute multitrack recording of a live concert that I’d like to bounce to a stereo file in Pro Tools. Along with the music tracks, there are also audience tracks. I’d like to process all the music tracks through a Sony Inflator plug-in, but not the audience tracks. Is there a way to do both simultaneously so I don’t have to baby sit two 100-minute bounces?”

A: Yes, there is, but you won’t be using the bounce function. Instead, you’ll be recording to two stereo tracks. It follows, that the first step is to create two stereo audio tracks. Label one Music and the other Audience. Set the input of the Music audio track to Bus 3-4 and the input of the Audience audio track to Bus 5-6

In order to use the Inflator on all the music tracks, create a stereo Aux track, insert the Inflator, set the input of the Aux track to Bus 1-2 and the output of the Aux track to bus 3-4. Now, set the output of all music tracks to Bus 1-2. Set the output of the audience tracks to Bus 5-6. Record-enable the Music and Audience stereo tracks and start recording. The music audio will pass through the Sony Inflator on the way to the Music stereo track, while the audience audio will go direct into the Audience stereo audio track. The files will show up in your audio folder, and there you have it – two differently processed files in half the time!