Does Bounce-To-Clip degrade the sound quality in any way?

[Roger W]

Does Bounce-To-Clip degrade the sound quality in any way?

Can it be done several times without degradation?

[Byron Dickens]

No.

[John Vere]

Cakewalk works at 32 bit floating point to avoid missing bits. Literally. It’s not like bouncing on a tape deck.  This is why we love digital audio. 

[Will.]

1 hour ago, Roger W said:

Does Bounce-To-Clip degrade the sound quality in any way?

No.

Neither does Bounce to Track - should that be your next question. 

[Craig Anderton]

If a stereo file uses all the available headroom, bouncing it to mono will cause clipped peaks. You need to lower the stereo file's level prior to bouncing to mono. The image on the left is prior to bouncing to mono, the image on the right is after bouncing to mono.

[William Copper]

The standard answer is no, but if you look closely things like the use of auxiliary tracks and plugins that are shared between tracks can cause a different answer, at least so far as bounce to track (I never use bounce to clip, so can't say about that).  What can happen is that, say, a reverb on an aux bus from tracks not involved in the bounce can contribute the reverb from the unwanted tracks.   Then there are the options: for Source Category, use "entire mix", use "hardware outputs" , use "buses", etc.   Each can create a different and usually undesirable alteration.    So, maybe a better answer is: if there is not any routing in use, the bounce is unchanged; otherwise, be careful.  

[Craig Anderton]

9 hours ago, William Copper said:

So, maybe a better answer is: if there is not any routing in use, the bounce is unchanged

...unless you're bouncing a stereo track to mono.

[sjoens]

I've always wondered why converting stereo to mono increases volume.  Seems to me the process should maintain total output level.  As is, another editing step is required to bring it down if it's too much.

[Byron Dickens]

Physics.

[OutrageProductions]

1 minute ago, Byron Dickens said:

Physics.

Ah yes... signal convolution and the pan laws.

[Will.]

22 hours ago, William Copper said:

but if you look closely things like the use of auxiliary tracks and plugins that are shared between tracks can cause a different answer, at least so far as bounce to track

You dont have to bounce to tracks with your effects on. It gives you the option to choose that, but even when you do or dont - it still doesnt degrade the sound. 

Edited January 14 by Will.

[Craig Anderton]

19 hours ago, sjoens said:

I've always wondered why converting stereo to mono increases volume. 

It's just addition. Creating mono from stereo requires adding two signals together. If both signals are flirting with maximum headroom, adding them together will exceed the available headroom. 

19 hours ago, sjoens said:

As is, another editing step is required to bring it down if it's too much.

I think a simple solution would be as soon as you invoke a convert-stereo-to-mono command, the stereo signal's gain would be reduced by 6 dB prior to adding the two channels together into a single channel.

[Will.]

On 1/14/2024 at 7:17 AM, sjoens said:

I've always wondered why converting stereo to mono increases volume.  Seems to me the process should maintain total output level.  As is, another editing step is required to bring it down if it's too much.

There are DAWs that compensate for this - much like 0dB center balance control with panning in Cakewalk. The same goes for when you do a send. It adds the same 3dB as collapsing the L&R channels together. 

[Shayne White]

On 1/13/2024 at 9:17 PM, sjoens said:

I've always wondered why converting stereo to mono increases volume.  Seems to me the process should maintain total output level.  As is, another editing step is required to bring it down if it's too much.

You're adding 2 audio streams together which will cause the output level to rise by 3db (assuming both the L and R channels are the same amplitude). If you're worried about clipping, you can hold down your CTRL key with the Smart tool enabled and drag the clip gain down 3db prior to bouncing.

Edited January 17 by Shayne White