You can bounce stems in Logic Pro X from the File menu at the top of the project window. You have multiple options for how to bounce your stems here, which allows you to choose the destination and file type for your bounce.
I’m Donovan, and I live for making music. I’ve been working with Logic Pro X for over a decade and am very familiar with this awesome app’s tools and features. I know how to bounce stems through first-hand experience.
This post will show you how to bounce stems in Logic Pro X. I’ll walk you through all the steps to make this happen and provide you with some other information relating to bouncing along the way. My goal is to help you become a better producer and to improve your workflow.
Let’s jump in.
Contents
Key Takeaways
- Bouncing stems is essential when it’s time to mix and master your projects. This allows you to share recorded tracks with other producers or musicians who might be helping you with the project.
- There are several ways to bounce stems in Logic Pro X, and you can send bounced tracks to a specific location or bounce them and replace the existing audio.
- Stems basically refer to the individual tracks of your project rather than all the tracks of the project bounced as a stereo track.
How to Bounce Stems in Logic Pro X
Stems are one part or track of a song that you export as a single file. This allows you to share a portion or all of a song with other producers or musicians who are helping you produce, edit, or record your Logic Pro X project.
To share the stems of a Logic project, you need to bounce them. This involves converting the files to a specific file format that makes them easier to share. You can also share the files with or without effects.
One of the easiest ways to bounce stems in Logic Pro X is to bounce all of the tracks in a project and replace the tracks with the bounced files. This allows you to share the entire Logic project in a smaller file format that can be moved around easier.
Before bouncing your stems, you should save all of your progress and copy your current Logic project into a new project. This will ensure that your original recorded files still exist after you bounce the stems.
You can select Save a Copy As from the File menu to save a copy of your project as Stems or a similar file name. This will create a new project with the same settings and effects as the main project.
Once you have created a copy, follow these steps to bounce stems in Logic Pro X.
1. Open the project with the stems you want to bounce.
2. Select the File menu from the top of the screen.
3. Select Bounce.
4. Select And Replace all Tracks.
5. An alert menu will appear telling you to save the project for continuing, be sure to do this if you haven’t already.
6. Another menu will appear with options you can adjust depending on your desired bounce settings. Choose whatever settings you need from the menu that looks like the image below.
7. Select OK once you have the settings you want. Logic will bounce all your stems and replace the existing tracks with bounced tracks in the project.
You can also export all of the tracks in your project as audio files, which will send all of the stems in your project to a new file location rather than replace all of the tracks in your existing project as bounced version.
Follow the steps below to bounce your stems by exporting the tracks as audio files.
1. Open the Logic Pro X project with the stems you want to bounce.
2. Select the File menu.
3. Select Export.
4. Select All Tracks as Audio Files.
You’ll see a window appear with several different settings you can make, depending on how you want to bounce the stems and what type of file you want them to be.
5. Make any changes from this menu that you want. You can choose the file folder destination, file format, and bit depth. You can also choose to bypass effect plug-ins or include automation (which I’ll address in the section below)
6. Select Export.
How to Bounce Stems in Logic for Mixing
Stems are often used as part of the mixing process. It’s common for the audio engineer or producer to send the stems of a Logic project to another person to do the mixing. Using multiple people is effective for getting a better-sounding mix.
But there are some things to keep in mind if you are preparing to bounce stems for mixing that will allow whoever is doing the mixing to better work with the files. Consider all of the following before you bounce your stems.
Delete Unused and Muted Tracks
If any tracks in your Logic Project are muted or unused, you should get rid of them before you bounce your stems. This will clean up the project and make it easier to work on it when someone else gets involved.
You can do this manually or select the Delete Unused Tracks option for the Track menu at the top of the screen. Just be sure you don’t delete any tracks that you actually want to use!
Bypassing Plugins
Another thing you should do to prepare stems for mixing is bypass any plugins you don’t need. You typically don’t need to include every single plugin that you used while recording during mixing.
You can bypass plugins from the menus that appear when you choose either of the bounce methods shown above.
Get Rid of Unwanted Automation
You should also consider getting rid of any unwanted or unneeded automation before bouncing your stems. If it’s not necessary for the mixing engineer to use this automation, you should probably get rid of it.
You can quickly turn automation on your tracks off by pressing the A key. You can also access the automation settings under the Mix tab of the main menu at the top of the project window.
How to Bounce Tracks in Logic Pro X
Bouncing tracks in Logic Pro X usually happens when you are ready to share a complete or near-complete project. This turns all of your project’s tracks (or the selected tracks) into a stereo track that can be listened to on other devices or in different DAWs.
Check out my post on how to bounce tracks in Logic Pro X for detailed instructions and other related information.
But all you need to do to start bouncing your project is press Command B in your Logic project. The bounce window will open from there, and you can adjust any settings you want as far as bounce location and file format goes.
Final Thoughts
Bouncing stems is an essential skill to learn in Logic Pro X because it enables you to share your projects with other musicians or producers who might be working with you to help mix and master the project. Stems are the individual tracks in your project saved as single files.
There are a few ways to bounce stems in Logic Pro, and the information in this post will allow you to share your projects quickly and easily. Just remember to always save your tracks before bouncing – especially if you are replacing the tracks in place!
Do you have a specific method relating to prepping your tracks for mixing before bouncing? Let me know in the comments below.
