Bounces

Every audio export from Live filed under the set that made it, numbered V1, V2 and on, playable from the project with a scrub bar, with a Re-bounce mark when the set has moved on, and your older bounces matched to their projects.

A bounce is an audio file you export from Live with File ▸ Export Audio/Video. It can be a full mix, a section or stems. Draftlist files each one under the project whose set was open in Live when you exported it. You find them at the top of the project's inspector, in its Bounces section.

Bounces is part of Draftlist. You don't need Pro.

What counts as a bounce

Draftlist catches a new file when all of these hold:

• It is audio Live exports. That means WAV, AIFF, FLAC or MP3.
• It is 10 seconds or longer. Shorter files, such as a one-shot or a short loop you exported to resample, are left out.
• It lands in a folder Draftlist watches. That is one of your Bounce folders, or anywhere inside a project folder except its Samples and Backup folders, which hold Live's own working files. A bounce beside the set, or in an Exports folder of your own inside the project, counts.
• Inside a project folder, Live was running. An audio file that appears in a project folder while Live is closed is a sample you copied in, so Draftlist leaves it alone. A file that appears in a Bounce folder while Live is closed goes to Unlinked bounces, since you told Draftlist that folder is for bounces.

A file you move in from somewhere else keeps its old date, so it isn't caught as a new export. Match my old bounces looks at those.

How a bounce finds its set

Live keeps its own log on your Mac, and it writes a line there each time it opens a set. When a new export lands, Draftlist reads that log to see which set was open at that moment, and files the bounce under that set's project. It usually shows up within a few seconds.

• No new permission, nothing changed. Draftlist only reads Live's log and the new file. It never writes to Live's files, and it never moves, renames or re-dates a bounce. What it learns is kept in its own library on your Mac.
• Stems are one entry. The files of one export, written one after another from the same set, are grouped. The section shows "4 stems", which opens to its files.
• A re-export over the same name updates the entry already there, with its new date and length. It becomes the project's next version.
• Save As and crash restores. A bounce made just after a Save As goes to the set it was saved as, and its line says "Linked to the set it was saved as". After Live restores a set from a crash, the line says "Restored after a crash in Live". These links are less sure, so they ask once. The question reads "Is this a bounce of …?" with the project's name, and the answers are Yes and Link elsewhere…. Press Yes and it never asks again.

Draftlist reads the logs of Live 11 and Live 12. If it finds a log it doesn't recognize, Settings ▸ Library ▸ Bounces says so, and new bounces wait in Unlinked bounces.

When Draftlist is closed

Nothing runs while Draftlist is closed. It has no background helper. The next time you open it, about 10 seconds after the window opens, it catches up on exports made in your Bounce folders and beside the sets in your project folders while it was closed. That works as long as Live's log still covers the time of the export. Live keeps a few weeks of it.

Versions

Each export of a project carries a small grey number before its name, such as V1, V2 or V3. A project's first bounce is V1, and each later export takes the next number as it joins the project. A stems export is one version, so all its files share one number.

A number never changes once it is given, and no number is used twice in a project. When an earlier bounce goes, the others keep theirs. Undo a move, and the bounce gets its old number back. When a renamed project folder gets its bounces back, they keep their numbers.

A re-export over the same file name is new audio, so it takes the next number and moves to the top. A stem you leave out of a stems re-export keeps its old number.

Suggestions show no number. In Unlinked bounces, a bounce that left its project still shows the number it had there.

Play a bounce

• In the inspector. Select a project. The Bounces section opens the Overview tab. The newest bounce is at the top, with Play, its date and its length. Older ones fold away under a count, such as "3 older bounces".
• On the Projects list. The third button on a project's row plays its newest bounce, and pauses it, without opening the inspector. For a stems export, it plays the export's first file. A project with no bounce shows Link a bounce… in that place instead. When every bounce of a project was moved or deleted, its Play is off, and its tip says "Its bounces were moved or deleted".

Bounces play through the same player as Samples, so the visualizer moves with them.

Each bounce's ··· menu has Show in Finder, Move to another project… and Not a bounce. Not a bounce takes it off the list for good. The file stays where it is.

A bounce that can't play says why instead:

A bounce renamed or moved inside a watched folder is found again by itself.

The scrub bar

While a bounce plays or is paused, a thin bar shows under it in the Bounces section. The time so far is on the left, and the length is on the right. Drag the round thumb, or click anywhere on the bar, to move through the bounce. With the thumb focused, ← and → move 5 seconds. → stops just short of the end, so the bounce keeps playing.

For a stems export, the bar shows under the export for whichever stem is playing, even while its files are folded away. If Draftlist doesn't know a bounce's length, the length reads "—" and the bar is off. The bar goes away when nothing plays.

Re-bounce

When you save a set more than 2 minutes after its newest bounce, a quiet Re-bounce mark appears beside the section's title. Its tip reads "The set was saved after its newest bounce." It tells you the song has moved on since you last printed it. It doesn't say the bounce is wrong, and a save with no change still counts. Export again and the mark goes.

Re-bounce is not counted in the Attention figure at the top of Projects. To list those projects, choose More filters ▸ Bounces ▸ Needs re-bounce in the Projects filter. The other choices are Any, Has bounces and None.

Unlinked bounces

Bounces Draftlist caught but couldn't place wait in Unlinked bounces. Open Settings ▸ Library ▸ Bounces. The Unlinked bounces row there shows how many are waiting, with Review…. The row shows only when something is waiting. Nothing else announces an unlinked bounce. There is no badge and no pop-up.

Each one says why it is there:

Each entry has Play, Link to a project… and Not a bounce. If you have run Match my old bounces, the list is split into Suggested and No match.

Link a bounce yourself

• Link a bounce… at the foot of a project's Bounces section opens a file picker. Pick one or more audio files.
• Link a bounce… on a Projects row, for a project with no bounce yet, opens the same file picker.
• Drag audio files from Finder onto a project's row on Projects. The row lifts while you hold the files over it. Drop them, and a note says "Linked 1 bounce to …" with Undo, which sends the bounce to Unlinked bounces. Only audio files can be linked as bounces.
• Move to another project… in a bounce's ··· menu moves it to another project.

Link to a project…, Move to another project… and Other… all open the same list of projects, with Find a project to search it. For a bounce Draftlist has looked at, Best matches come first, each with the reasons for it, and a "but …" when something speaks against it.

Linking only tells Draftlist which project a file belongs to. The file is never moved or copied.

Match my old bounces

The watcher files the bounces you export from now on. Match my old bounces deals with the ones you already have. Those can be years of exports in a bounce folder, a mixdown beside a set, or stems in a folder of their own.

Start it in either place:

• Settings ▸ Library ▸ Bounces ▸ Match… (after the first run, Match again).
• The card on Projects. Once, a small card in the corner asks "Match your old bounces?", with Not now and Match. If Live's last export folder isn't one of your Bounce folders, the card has a ticked box to include it. The card goes away by itself after a few seconds and doesn't come back. Settings always has Match.
• Your first scan. If you chose a bounce folder when you set up Draftlist, the match runs by itself as soon as the first scan is done. The card on Projects is not shown then, since the match has already run. If you press Stop during that scan, nothing is matched. Start it from Settings when you are ready.

Matching needs Watch for bounces on.

Where it looks, and what it reads

It looks through your Bounce folders. In each project, it looks in the places exports land. Those are the top of the project's folder, folders inside it with export names (such as Bounces, Exports, Renders, Mixdown, Masters, Mixes or Stems), and folders with those names beside it. It never looks inside Samples or Backup, and it never sweeps a whole project folder.

For each file it weighs:

• The file's name, and the names of the folders it sits in, against the set's name and its track names.
• When the file was written, against every save of the set Draftlist knows (its versions and Live's Backup copies), when the project was created, and Live's log for the last few weeks.
• Where the file is, against where the project is.
• How long the file is, against the arrangement, whether it is a whole number of bars at the set's tempo, and a tempo written in its name.

It reads only names, dates and each file's header. No audio is decoded, and an online-only file is never opened or downloaded. The tempo is never heard. It comes from names and bar lengths, and it only ever adds a little.

What it does with each file

• It links by itself only when it is sure. That means one project stands clearly above every other, and two different kinds of evidence agree, such as the same name and a save of the set a few minutes from the file's date. A copy of a bounce already linked is sure too. The bounce's line says how it was matched in one sentence, such as "Matched by name and date". Hold the pointer over it to see every reason. If it is wrong, press Not from this set in its ··· menu. The bounce goes back to Unlinked bounces, and Draftlist won't match it to that set again.
• When it is fairly sure, it asks. The question reads "Is this a bounce of …?" with the project's name, and one line says why, such as "Saved 4 min after this file".
• When nothing fits, it says No match. A file from a Bounce folder waits in Unlinked bounces under No match. Old audio inside a project folder that looks like no set's bounce is left alone, so long samples and reference tracks don't fill the list.

If you name your bounces differently from your sets and keep them in a folder of their own, most of them will ask. The time is the strongest evidence, and on its own that is one kind of evidence, not two. That is one click or one key each.

While it runs, Settings shows "Checked … of about … files", with how many are linked and how many are waiting for you, and Stop. Pressing Scan stops it too ("Stopped for the scan. Match again to carry on."). Match again carries on where it stopped, and changes nothing it has already done.

Answer a suggestion

Every suggestion asks the same question, "Is this a bounce of …?", with the project's name.

In Unlinked bounces, Suggested comes first, the surest at the top, then No match, folded away. Each suggestion has Yes, No and Other….

In a project's Bounces section, the bounces Draftlist thinks are this project's show under Suggested, up to three, each with Yes and No. "… more suggested" opens the rest.

• Yes links it. A stems export takes one answer for all its files.
• No means it is never suggested for that project again. Draftlist shows its next guess, or moves the file to No match.
• Other… opens the list of projects, with Best matches on top.
• Every answer shows a note with Undo.

There is no "Yes to all". Nothing is linked that you didn't look at. In Unlinked bounces, the keyboard answers:

A hint under the list names the keys. It reads Y yes, N no, O other and Space play.

It learns from your answers

Each Yes and No, and each bounce you link or move yourself, teaches Draftlist how much to trust names, dates and places in your library, within fixed limits. It learns only from your answers. It never changes a link you made or confirmed, and once it has asked you about a bounce, it never links that bounce by itself later. It asks again.

Settings ▸ Library ▸ Bounces ▸ What matching learned says how many answers it has learned from. Reset forgets them. The links you made stay, and a No stays a no.

After the first match

• When you add a Bounce folder, Settings offers "Match the bounces already in this folder?" with Match and Not now.
• After a scan, the bounces still unlinked are quietly checked again, since a new project can be an old bounce's home. These checks only ever suggest.
• A bounce the watcher couldn't place (Live was closed, or two Lives were open) is matched about 30 seconds after the export's last file lands, so a stems export is one question.

Settings

• Settings ▸ Library ▸ Bounces ▸ Watch for bounces turns the whole feature off. It is on at first. Its line reads "Draftlist reads Live's own log to tell which set was open when you export. Nothing leaves your Mac." While it is off nothing is caught or matched, and the bounces already listed stay, and still play.
• Settings ▸ Folders ▸ Bounce folders lists the folders you export to. Your project folders are watched too, so add only the folder your bounces go to. When Live's last export folder isn't on the list, Draftlist offers it with the line "Live last exported to …" and Add as a Bounce folder.
• Your first bounce folder can be chosen when you first set up Draftlist. Its second step asks "Where do your bounces go?" and offers Live's last export folder under Live last exported here. You can skip it and add the folder later in Settings. See Getting started.

Settings has the details.

In search (⌘K), type "bounce" or "match" to jump to Bounces, Bounce folders, Watch for bounces, Unlinked bounces, Add a bounce folder, Match my old bounces, Suggested bounces or Reset what matching learned.

What it doesn't do

• Nothing leaves your Mac. Bounces uses no network at all. Live's log is read on your Mac.
• Nothing is changed on disk. No bounce is moved, renamed, re-dated or tagged, and nothing is written to Live's files or your project folders.
• It doesn't run in the background. With Draftlist closed, nothing watches. It catches up the next time it opens.
• It doesn't follow a folder rename. When you rename a project folder, its bounces go to Unlinked bounces until you rename it back or link them yourself.
• It can't find a file moved outside every watched folder. That bounce reads "File moved or deleted". There is no Locate… for it yet.
• It doesn't listen to the audio. The tempo comes from names and lengths, never from the sound.

Troubleshooting has fixes for a bounce that didn't show up or landed under the wrong set.