More often than not these days I am constantly needing to bounce large projects and somehow get them into mp3 format for clients. Well, it is impossible to bounce a project to mp3 larger than 2GB (go figure). My first attempt to bounce a 117min project to mp3 resulted in the error message below:

Obviously choosing a shorter bounce time will make the long project incomplete so here is the work around. First, you must convert/bounce your project to the CAF format. To do this, Bounce the project, in the PCM Destination File Format select CAF.

If you look at the file size of your newly created CAF file, it should be huge (assuming you have a large project). For this particular example, my clients project ended up being 1.68 GB.

Now that we have an exported file to work with, open up Compressor and import your CAF. Navigate to the MP3 for Audio Podcasting and add the setting to your CAF then submit:

Upon completion, you’ll have your mp3. Notice the size difference between the above CAF and the mp3 below:

I went from a 1.68 GB file to a 129.6 MB file. It’s all pretty simple really. You just have to go through the motions and use the tools.