How to Export Audio From Pro Tools – to Anywhere!

If what goes in must come out, then it won’t be long before any Pro Tools user needs to get their audio project out of Pro Tools. Such a large piece of software offers so many options that it can be hard for a beginner to know where to look, and even for an intermediate user hoping to do something out of their comfort zone.

In this article, we’ll discuss almost every way of exporting and bouncing audio from Pro Tools, in order to render WAV, MP3 and other file formats for use elsewhere. We’ll cover basic knowledge like keyboard shortcuts and simple settings, right through to different audio types you may want to export.

The Easiest Way to Export From Pro Tools

If you find yourself exporting very often, a solution like Dragout 2 could save you time and frustration. Dragout is an AudioSuite plugin that makes it simple to grab audio from Pro Tools and move it to anywhere, straight away. 

What is the Shortcut for Export in Pro Tools?

The quickest way to export (bounce) your whole project’s master output in Pro Tools is by hitting ⌥+⌘+B on Mac, or Ctrl+Alt+B on Windows. In most cases, the default settings should suffice, so you can then go ahead and choose your File Destination folder and hit Bounce.

However, depending on your setup, you might have to adjust some settings in the succeeding options panel. Don’t worry, we’ll walk you through the important settings now. Once you’ve hit the keyboard shortcut, you should be met with the Bounce Mix options panel as seen in the below screenshot.

You can see we have a few settings to play around with. If you want to export your whole project as a single stereo file, you’ll need to ensure the following settings are in place. 

First, your Mix Source drop-down option should be set to the stereo master output of your project/device. Unless you’ve got lots of complex routing going on, this should be Physical Output > ”name of output” (Stereo). Alternatively, you can select Output (Stereo) -> “name of output” 1-2. The name of your output will be different depending on your audio device/driver.

The second key setting you’ll need to double-check is the File Format drop-down menu in the Audio section. To ensure your project exports as a single stereo file (that includes left and right signals in the same file), select the Interleaved option. Other than that, you can change the File Type, Bit Depth and Sample Rate if you wish, but these should default to the most appropriate settings.

The fastest way to export a single track in Pro Tools 

If you’re looking to quickly export/bounce an individual track in Pro Tools, you can simply right-click on the desired track’s header and click ‘Bounce…’. You can select the file destination and bounce settings in the same manner as mentioned above. This works for stereo and mono tracks.

How to Batch Export in Pro Tools

When working with audio, sometimes you need to batch export countless files at once. Perhaps you’re working on a large-sized sample pack, or you’re a video game sound designer and have hundreds of files you need systematically exported.

Using Dragout 2, you can drag one or all individual files out of a project as well as mixdowns in any format you choose. By holding Shift while hovering over an individual file, you can drag all the currently loaded files instead of their summed overall output.

Pro Tools has you covered natively with efficient Clip management settings. The DAW identifies and categorises a project’s MIDI patterns and audio files as internal Clips, providing a unique workflow compared to other DAWs. There are some limitations to this workflow, however, as a whole, it provides a more seamless experience when working with advanced setups across a wide range of different audio-editing applications and processes. To view and interact with your Clips in a project, navigate to Window > Clip List.

Now, thanks to Pro Tools’ advanced, yet efficient workflow, we have access to a few different methods of ‘batch’ exporting audio. Each of these methods is more appropriate for different scenarios and use cases. In the above example scenario of needing to quickly batch export numerous MIDI patterns and audio files, we can follow the process of exporting Clips as files.

How to Export Clips as Files in Pro Tools

To export a clip as a file in Pro Tools, you’ll first need to make sure what you’re trying to export appears as a distinguished Clip in your Clip List. By default, any audio files and MIDI patterns in your project will automatically be recognised as Clips by Pro Tools. 

However, any processing FX won’t be embedded onto the clip when exported, unless you first consolidate your track into a new clip before exporting it (see the How to Export Stems with Effects section further down for more info).

It’s important not to get Clips and audio files confused. The two terms are not interchangeable. You can rename Clips inside of your project without affecting the original audio file name inside of your project’s Mac Finder or Windows Explorer folder. 

With this in mind, you can assign relevant names to your Clips in the project before exporting them as files. This allows you to name them in an orderly fashion so that the fresh files will be organised. The Clip List even allows you to right-click and select Batch Rename for multiple Clips. This provides Pro Tools with superb efficiency.

From the Clip List window, you can also select the Export Clips as Files option, from the same menu, when right-clicking a selected Clip. You’ll then be presented with an export settings panel. Inside this panel you can customize your export settings to choose what File Type you desire, the intended Bit Depth and Sample Rate, whether you want stereo Clips Interleaved or Mono, as well as choosing the desired export file directory.

How to Export Multiple Clips in Pro Tools

If you wish to export multiple clips at the same time (batch export), all you need to do is follow the same process as mentioned above. The only difference is that you first highlight all the Clips you want to batch export before right-clicking and selecting the Export Clips as Files option.

You can use Dragout 2 to export multiple tracks individually, summed or as one large stack. Drag from an individual file’s output handle (right-hand side) instead of the overall output handle. You can also hold shift to select all individual tracks (AKA stems) to drag out.

Batch renaming your Clips before following through with this batch export function is recommended to make sure all of your freshly exported files/samples follow a cohesive file name structure. This process allows you to export hundreds, if not thousands of audio files/samples at the same time whilst keeping them neat and orderly in a desired folder.

How to Export Stems from Pro Tools – for music and post

Exporting as clips does have some limitations. For example, Clips don’t auto-print real-time FX processing when exported as files, nor do they export time-stamped information. This is problematic if you’re a music producer or post-production engineer, needing to keep the files aligned in time and with their FX processing applied. Files exported in this format are known as track stems.

Due to the nature of Pro Tools, there are some technicalities, making exporting stems a little more complex than in other DAWs. As it stands, there’s no direct way to instantaneously export all of your project tracks from start to finish, with the real-time processing FX applied, into stems. However, there are a few workarounds to achieve the same results.

You can try Dragout 2 to export stems from Pro Tools quite efficiently. After selecting the particular tracks, clips and timeline region you want to export, click Load to get the audio data into the plugin. From here, you can drag out individual tracks or a rendered version of all tracks summed. Moving to the next group of tracks to make a single buss or stem might be as simple as making a new selection and loading this new audio.

How to Export Stems from Pro Tools

The fastest way to export your tracks as stems in Pro Tools is to Consolidate entire tracks’ content into Clips with the desired start and stop points, as well as Commit them to any applied FX processing. These steps will ensure the FX processing and time information are embedded into the Clips before exporting them as stems, using the Export Clips as Files option, as outlined in the previous section. 

The downside to this is that, once your track has been consolidated and committed, you cannot undo the process later on–meaning, the FX processing is now permanently embedded into that clip within your project. To mitigate this downside, Pro Tools ensures that backups of the original clips are still present in your Clip List and Pro Tools project. So, if you need to access/re-import the unadulterated versions, you can easily click and drag them from the Clip List.

How to Export Stems with Effects

To consolidate an audio track into a Clip with the FX processing and time information applied, you’ll need to follow two steps. First click and drag your chosen track, covering its desired start & stop point for the new beginning and end timestamps. You can then hit ⌥+⇧+3 on a Mac or Alt+Shift+3 on Windows. This will consolidate your track. You can see from our screenshot below that the new consolidated clip starts at the project’s starting point

If you wish to also print the FX onto the Clip, therefore preparing it for export as a stem, you can right-click on the track’s header text and select Commit. You’ll then be met with a settings panel asking if you’d like to also commit any automation and panning settings to the new Clip. You can adjust these settings as you wish. After you confirm your settings, you should see the new effects applied to the Clip in your project, and the new Clip added to your Clip List.

Now, when you export the new Clip as a file, the processing FX and time-stamped information will be applied. You’ll have successfully exported your track as a stem. This will make it much more efficient for other producers, or yourself, to seamlessly import your stems into new projects on other devices or DAWs

How to Export All Tracks as Audio Files from Pro Tools

If you want to apply the above process to every single track at once, you simply have to click and drag your selection range across your whole project, covering all tracks you wish to Commit and Consolidate, as well as the desired start and stop points. See our screenshot below for reference.

Once you’ve selected all of your tracks at the desired start/stop range, you can follow through with the Consolidate shortcut of ⌥+⇧+3 on a Mac or Alt+Shift+3 on Windows, and Commit the audio by right-clicking on any of the selected tracks’ headers and choosing Commit. Now, your tracks are ready to export as stems by selecting Export Clips as Files from the Clip List.

How to Export from Pro Tools in Various Formats

Sometimes, you might want to export your audio under different file formats. If you’re planning on migrating your project’s audio to a different Pro Tools project or another DAW, you’ll want to ensure the files are exported in a lossless, high-definition file format. Alternatively, in other instances, you might prefer a lossy compression format to reduce file size.

Let’s take a look at some of the common file formats Pro Tools offers now, as well as how to export your Pro Tools’ audio as these differing formats.

How to Export an MP3 from Pro Tools

The first, and most well-known audio file type of all time is the MP3 file. MP3s are great for rapid sharing of audio across devices and the internet. However, there’s a downside to the MP3 file format: it uses a lossless file compression codec during export. 

The MP3 codec relies on removing much data from the audio (whilst attempting to retain its perceived quality) to save file storage space. This is great for delivering audio to consumers in its final format, however, when working professionally, we want to ensure the audio is kept at its highest integrity during all stages.

With that being said, we still might want to export our audio under the MP3 codec sometimes when working in Pro Tools. For example, we might need a quick bit of feedback from an online colleague, and sharing the file as an MP3 will reduce upload time and storage space, whilst still allowing our colleague to experience the audio in its necessary glory.

Regardless of which method of exporting you decide to opt for during your Pro Tools experience, you’ll be able to switch the File Type to MP3 from a drop-down menu. This applies to all the above-mentioned export methods within Pro Tools. Whether you’re exporting Clips as files, bouncing your master mix, or exporting as stems–you’ll still have the option to change the file format to MP3.

How to Export a WAV from Pro Tools

We’ve mentioned the WAV file format earlier in the article. You can think of the WAV file format as the opposite of the MP3 as explained in the previous sub-section. If MP3 is the lossy, reduced-file-size version of audio, WAV is the max-file-size, highest-fidelity version of audio. 

On a side note, there are also alternative lossless and lossy audio file formats too. Some of these can also be worked with in Pro Tools. However, WAV and MP3 are the two predominant file types, easily transferable across all major software and operating systems.

The WAV file format will be your best friend as an audio engineer because it’s essential for you to transfer audio data across projects and devices, whilst retaining its raw fidelity.

Exporting any audio file as a WAV in Pro Tools is quick and easy, just like exporting under the MP3 format. In the same respect, you can simply select the WAV format from the drop-down File Type menu when encountering the export settings panel during any of the export processes you’ll encounter when using Pro Tools.

How to Export AAF from Pro Tools

The last file type we’ll discuss here is an essential format for those of you working in post-production audio roles, where you’ll likely be jumping in and out of Pro Tools projects and other relevant video editing software. 

The AAF and OMF file formats (AAF being newer) are designed to specifically integrate compatibility between Pro Tools and other popular professional video editing software, where the audio and video assets are linked, as well as the information correlating between the two.

For example, you might be working on a soundtrack for a movie trailer and the audio effect automation directly correlates with the visual effects on screen. In this scenario, a movie studio might send you an AAF file to import into Pro Tools, giving you the ability to apply all of Pro Tools’ capabilities to the audio track(s), still attached to the embedded video. In short, the AAF file format provides a seamless workflow between audio and video production teams.

To export your Pro Tools project as an AAF/OMF file, you can select all of your desired tracks and navigate to File>Export>Export Selected Tracks as New AAF/OMF. You’ll then be met with a settings panel similar to the ones we’ve already encountered throughout this article. You can choose to export the file as AAF or OMF from the first drop-down option. You can also adjust other relevant settings from this panel before following through with hitting the OK button.

It’s worth mentioning that, although Pro Tools is the most comprehensive audio-editing suite available, Pro Tools also comes pre-loaded with some pretty hefty video-editing capabilities too. Avid also offer a complete video-editing counterpart software, specifically for those who might be working frequently with AAF/OMF file format, called Media Composer. Avid intended to create a pro-level video editing suite with ultimate compatibility with the world’s most unmatched DAW. It’s also available in a free version for those wanting to check it out.

How to Export Video and Audio from Pro Tools

Despite Avid offering their own separate video editing suite software, Media Composer, Pro Tools already comes locked and loaded with some impressive video editing tools. And, the only thing you have to do to enable them and start working with video inside your Pro Tools is navigate to Setup>Playback Engine and click the Enable Video Engine option. Now you can import, edit and export video in a range of formats in Pro Tools.

We won’t be extensively exploring Pro Tools’ full video-editing capabilities in this article, but rather providing a quick demonstration of how to export your video and audio when working with a video track in Pro Tools.

First, make sure the video track you wish to be exported is set as your main video track. If only working with one video track, it will be set to the main video track by default. If not, you can simply toggle on the blue ‘O’ button in the track’s main panel.

Once you’re ready to export, simply navigate to File > Bounce Mix…, as if you were going to export your master audio outputs normally. However, this time, from the Bounce Mix settings panel, you’re going to need to select MOV file format from the File Type drop-down menu. MOV is a video file format and the only codec (other than AAF) that Pro Tools uses to manage video information.

Once you select MOV from the drop-down list, you’ll notice an extra panel of settings appear. These are all of the export settings which Pro Tools will allow you to customize. You can modify the target bit rate, as well as the video codec in this panel. And, just like that, you’ve managed to export video from Pro Tools!

How to Bounce from Pro Tools Without Playback

To get around Pro Tools’ habit of playing back audio as it bounces it, you should check out Dragout 2. This plugin lets you select audio tracks on the Pro Tools timeline and then drag the resulting rendered file (or individual files) out to your desktop or anywhere else. Dragout 2 works directly from disk so doesn’t need to play back for effects processing to be added.

When working in Pro Tools as a beginner, especially if used to the workflow of other DAWs, everything can seem counterintuitive, alien and even frustrating. You can remove this behaviour by ticking the Offline Export box in the Bounce Mix settings. However, after some time, you’ll soon discover that the ‘online export’ method is designed this way inside Pro Tools for a reason, and it can be to your advantage.

A prime example of this is Pro Tools’ live playback when bouncing a track. In older versions of Pro Tools, and depending on your setup, this feature might be enabled by default. This can be annoying because, each time you export audio, you’ll have to sit through an entire live playback of the whole production

The reason: Pro Tools prints all audio signals to the final file live as it plays. This ensures a much more accurate render of the audio file, especially when running complex signal routing through analogue hardware.

However, if you’re running a simple setup on a PC or Mac, or if you’re not using Pro Tools with complex routing, it makes little sense to keep this option enabled. It’s also pointless to keep enabled if you want to export your track as quickly as possible, without listening to the entire thing each time around.

If your Pro Tools is automatically playing back your whole production each time you try to export, you can easily disable this function by selecting the Offline Export tickable box from the Bounce Mix settings panel. It’s right down the bottom left. And, voila, that should fix your issue!

How to Make Pro Tools Bounce Faster

If your Pro Tools projects are taking an excruciatingly long time to export, it’s probably due to having the Offline export setting disabled–meaning all of your processing effects and audio rendering are being printed to each export in real-time.

Especially if you’re exporting a lot of audio files in a complex manner, another solution is to use Dragout 2 to export audio from Pro Tools. As this AudioSuite plugin gets its output data straight from your hard disk, it can make tedious batch processing and multitrack bouncing simpler and more convenient.

To enable Offline rendering, simply tick the Offline box in the Bounce Mix settings panel, as outlined in the previous section. That way, you’ll no longer have to sit through the painstaking live playback of your track each time you go to export.

How to Export from Pro Tools to Sibelius

Pro Tools also features compatibility with another commonly used songwriting software, Sibelius. Sibelius, as opposed to typical DAWs, is a software allowing songwriters to compose scores and sheet music. However, users of Sibelius are frequently well-acquainted with the workflow of a DAW, like Pro Tools, as well. That’s why Avid has added the ability to export your MIDI or Instrument track scores inside of Pro Tools directly to Sibelius. You can also copy and paste between the programs effortlessly.

To be able to export score information to Sibelius from Pro Tools, you’ll need to navigate to File>Export>Sibelius. However, this option will be greyed out unless you already have the Score Editor window open. To open the Score Editor, navigate to Window>Score Editor. You can then oversee all MIDI and Instrument tracks within the Score Editor and begin hopping between Sibelius and Pro Tools effortlessly.

How to Export Audio from Pro Tools to Logic

If you’re a music producer of any shape and size, you’ll probably need to export/import track stems to and from DAWs at some point in your career. Let’s take a quick look at how we can export stems from Pro Tools into another DAW, like Logic Pro in no time at all.

First, you’ll want to refer to our above section titled How to Export Stems from Pro Tools. Once you’ve got your audio track stem exports ready to go, come back to this section to continue importing them into Logic Pro.

Okay, now that you’ve got your stems into a folder on your computer, similar to the above screenshot, you’re ready to go ahead and open up a fresh new project in Logic Pro. Once you’ve got a blank project open, you can either manually set your project tempo to match the pre-existing tempo in your previous Pro Tools topic, or you can wait until after you import your stems for Logic Pro to automatically match the project tempo.

At this point, simply select all of your audio files from within your Mac Finder window and click and drag them into your fresh Logic Pro project. You’ll then be prompted, asking if you want to ‘Create new tracks’ or ‘Use Existing Tracks’. You’re going to want to select Create new tracks and click OK. And, that’s it. Simple as that–all of your Pro Tools stems have been successfully imported into Logic Pro. If you didn’t pre-select your project temp before, you can simply right-click on any of the imported stems and select Temp>Apply Region Tempo to Project Tempo.

Pro Tools Export vs Bounce

When working with audio, you’ll hear the terms ‘bounce’ and ‘export’ used interchangeably. That’s because, for the most part, they carry the exact same meaning. However, in software like Pro Tools (and some other DAWs), the two terms are used to describe different types of audio-exporting behaviours and functions.

For example, what we traditionally refer to as ‘exporting’ actually falls under the ‘bounce’ function in Pro Tools and the export settings refers to a bunch of miscellaneous export functions for different applications like exporting tracks as AAF/OMF format or as MIDI data.

How to Export Using Hardware Outputs

Alternatively, if you’re working with a multi-output audio interface or mixing desk, you can export all of your tracks separately by assigning them to different outputs and then selecting them as separate export sources from the same Bounce Mix settings panel we used in the first section. If you’re even slightly familiar with signal routing and have a multi-output audio interface/mixing desk, feel free to continue reading this section to learn how to batch export in Pro Tools using this method.

Batch export using hardware multi-output

If you want to batch export multiple outputs you’ll need to assign each of your desired tracks to a free output on your audio interface/mixing desk. Please note, stereo tracks will either have to be sent to a stereo output, or exported as two separate mono (L&R) tracks. Typically, you’ll have many more mono outputs available on hardware interfaces than stereo, and most interfaces only have one or two stereo outputs (the master output and headphone output). 

To continue, Let’s refer back to our Pro Tools project mixer. To open the mixer, hit ⌘ + ’+’ on Mac and Ctrl + ‘+’ on PC. Once the mixer panel is open, you’ll see that we have a drop-down menu for both the Input and Output source of every mixer track. The objective here is to assign each of our tracks to their own spare output. So, go ahead and open the drop-down menu for each track and select any unused output. Even if you’re working with limited outputs (for example eight), you can still batch-export eight digital tracks at a time.

Once you’ve assigned all of your digital tracks to a corresponding hardware output, you can hit ⌥+⌘+B on Mac, or ctrl+alt+B on PC to open up the Bounce Mix settings. From there, we have the same Mix Source option we used earlier. However, this time, we won’t be selecting the master stereo output as our sole source. Instead, we can click the ‘+’ button to the right of the drop-down box to add as many outputs as we’d like to export. We can then select the corresponding outputs that we assigned our digital tracks to.

You can then choose either Interleaved or Multiple mono from the Audio File Format setting. Multiple mono will ensure that even stereo outputs from the Mix Sources will be exported as two separate files (left and right), whilst Interleaved will combine any stereo Mix Sources into a single stereo file.

Key things to remember if batch exporting through hardware interface

Now, you should have all of the audio signals you sent to each output exported as a separate file. If you have more digital tracks than hardware outputs, you can batch export them in separate loads. For example, if working with 16 mono digital tracks and only have eight hardware outputs, assign the first eight on the Pro Tools Mixer panel, export them, then, go back in and reassign the other eight to export once more in the same method. It’s also worth importing your exported stems to a fresh project just to see if everything has been exported correctly.

A couple of things to keep in mind is that, when bouncing your files, you’ll want to select the File Type as WAV to ensure lossless file export. This means the audio files will be as high quality as possible. You’ll also need to remember that this method is very CPU intensive and any latency-caused distortion will show up in your final exports as the audio signal will be printed during live playback. On the plus side, this means that all digital processing fx will also be printed onto the exported files without the need for Consolidating or Committing Clips and Exporting Clips as Files..

Finally, depending on your hardware setup, your signal routing could get a little bit complex. Unfortunately, we won’t be covering advanced hardware routing in this article but, ultimately, you’ll need to make sure your audio interface/mixing desk hardware outputs are also routed and set up correctly for live monitoring and seamless playback during the export.