How to bounce directly to the cloud?

[DC-Choppah]

We work in ProTools on WIndows 10 PCs and bounce to the drive. Then we have to launch the web browser and manually move the bounced files onto a cloud server (google drive). From there the bounced audio can easily be auditioned on all of the devices (car, stereo, other people's house, iphone, etc.).

I just did a project where I had to do that quite a few times, and realize it wold be very nice to just be able to bounce from Protools directly to the cloud drive.

I don't want to share all of the ProTools internal project, just the bounced audio file.

Can anyone think of a way to be able to point the output of the Protools bounce directly to the cloud like this?

[James Perrett]

Get the Google Backup and Sync software. You just bounce the files into the local Google Drive directory and the Google software takes care of sending it to the cloud in the background. Other cloud services have similar software.

[Drew Stephenson]

Can you not just create a folder in your cloud storage and set it to Render there?
By which I mean that if I were doing this I'd create a new folder in One Drive and then set Reaper to save any renders there.
I'm guessing either Pro Tools or Google Drive (or both) doesn't work like that though?

[Jack Ruston]

Doesn't Google Drive just install a client folder on your computer that you can print to?

J

[muzines]

Doesn't Google Drive just install a client folder on your computer that you can print to?

Yep, just like Dropbox. Although Google Drive doesn't preserve various OSX file attributes - like tags - which I do use for various things so I tend to stick to Dropbox most of the time...

In any case, as has been said, just print to your sync folder for whatever service you use, and it will be transparently uploaded/updated and push up to the cloud.

[DC-Choppah]

Thanks guys.

We switched to using OneDrive. That folder is already there so no need to add any extra google drive software.

Just bounce to the OneDrive folder and it synchs to the cloud right away.

[Jack Ruston]

Obviously you have your reasons for wanting to do this, but for me, it's essential to keep the rendered mixes from every stage with the session files. So often people reference an old mix and there's always a danger that it has somehow gone unless it's with the session itself. So personally I'd bounce it into the session folder and copy it to the cloud fokder, but that's just me.

[CS70]

Obviously you have your reasons for wanting to do this, but for me, it's essential to keep the rendered mixes from every stage with the session files. So often people reference an old mix and there's always a danger that it has somehow gone unless it's with the session itself. So personally I'd bounce it into the session folder and copy it to the cloud fokder, but that's just me.

Just as a tip, at least Dropbox keeps different versions of each file for a month or more, so you can always recover an old version of a file should the need arise.

[Jack Ruston]

A month? People come back five years down the line wanting some obscure version. I think it's always worth having all relevant files with whatever hardcopy you have.

[DC-Choppah]

This is not working out as I had hoped.

Accessing the bounced files from the cloud is fine if there is WiFi. I am using uncompressed .wav files. So a song might be 50-80 MBytes depending.

But if the files have to be accessed over cellular data, the connection is unrealiable, cuts out, drops, etc. But then sometimes works great. But then quits.

If the files are compressed (mp3 files) then the cellular network is much more reliable.

So it seems that

Cloud + uncompressed music + WiFi = Great

Cloud + uncompressed music + cell network = Bad

Cloud + compressed music + cell network = Ok

You guys helped me with my original problem. I can bounce directly to the cloud now. Thanks!

The cloud itself seems to need WiFi for uncompressed audio in order to work reliably.

[James Perrett]

Have you tried using a lossless encoder like FLAC? This will halve the network data rate required which may be enough to get things working. It may also be worth converting the files to 16 bit 44.1/48kHz sampliing rate if they aren't already.

[DC-Choppah]

Have you tried using a lossless encoder like FLAC? This will halve the network data rate required which may be enough to get things working. It may also be worth converting the files to 16 bit 44.1/48kHz sampliing rate if they aren't already.

I need to try that. Does FLAC work on iOS (iPhones)?

I really can't tolerate the mp3 sound. I am trying to audition the wav files on various systems. I know people with really nice stereos, various cars, etc and I want to hear it in their world before I submit the wav file to the radio station. When I get to their place and I want to hear a version with a different balance of bass to lead voice, I need those files bounced in advance. It is the balance of the bass to the lead voice of the song that I want to get right. If you have to turn up the volume to clearly hear the lead voice and the bass comes up too much then that balance is off.

And the radio stations do not want mp3 files, just wave files. So listening to mp3 files defeats the purpose of what I am trying to do.

BTW the mp3 files sound dark and swirly and lacking in clarity and swishy and noisy to me. Drums and cymbals sound artificial and warbly and not very musical.

[James Perrett]

I need to try that. Does FLAC work on iOS (iPhones)?

I'm not an Apple user but apparently it is recognised natively if you are using iOS11 or newer. If you have an older operating system you can always use an app like VLC to play it.

[DC-Choppah]

We just found a way that works well. When you open OneDrive on the phone, you go to the file details and set it to 'Make available offline'. This takes a few minutes to download but now it works reliably. No streaming. No conversion process. No compression.

I never realized how bad mp3 sounds until I heard these same bounces on good systems where I could compare. Really awful. My kids noticed it immediately too.

[muzines]

I never realized how bad mp3 sounds until I heard these same bounces on good systems where I could compare. Really awful. My kids noticed it immediately too.

There isn't really an inherent problem in the mp3 format - what really matters is the quality the mp3 is encoded at, and the quality of the encoder.

A good encoder at 320Kb should give you good results without obvious artifacts on typical pop music. While a 96Kb encoded file will sound terrible.

[The Elf]

I need to try that. Does FLAC work on iOS (iPhones)?

FLAC certainly works in CloudBeats, which is the player I choose to use - avoids all that mucking about with iTunes - so the iPhone must be capable.