Sending tracks in for "mastering"

[Mr. Moon]

What format do most mastering houses request when having folks send tunes in to be mastered?
1. As multiple-track project files (Sonar4, etc.) with mixing in place and no effects applied at all (i.e. delay on guitars solos, etc.)? Or,
2. as 2-track (stereo) mixed tracks with all effects, etc. printed to tape, so to speak, without fades and such on the ends and no overall effects (summed compression or aural exciters, etc.)?

A friend of mine is thinking about having his tunes mastered, but cannot get the projects files (tracked with Paris software, I think) from the studio he recorded at. He paid up fully, but they "lost" the project files to a few of his tunes or something like that ....whatever. So, he was wondering if he can just send the 2-track mixed versions in, and it started a discussion between us regarding mastering.

I have always thought that the classic "mastering" was done on the 2-track mixed down tracks (without compression or other effects across the entire mixes, but effects applied to individual tracks like a delay on a guitar solo) ...whereas he thought that you just sent out the multi-track project files without *any* effects applied whatsoever, including effects to a single track, but mixed as you would like with notes on what effect should be applied where. I always thought that his version of it would be more of a "mix & master" process rather than a "mastering" process.

Any info would be a great help. And yes, I did search the forum for this topic, but I never found a clearly definitive answer, just theoretical explanations.

-mr moon

[Massive Master]

Traditionally, yes. It's from the two track mix.

Mastering from stems is a bit more like what he's describing - Groups - Perhaps drums, guitars, vocals, effects - All at unity so the mix is put together properly from the start, but the M.E. can tweak it. It gets expensive...

But he sounds like he's describing mixing to me...

[Mr. Moon]

Originally Posted by Massive Master

Traditionally, yes. It's from the two track mix.

Mastering from stems is a bit more like what he's describing - Groups - Perhaps drums, guitars, vocals, effects - All at unity so the mix is put together properly from the start, but the M.E. can tweak it. It gets expensive...

But he sounds like he's describing mixing to me...

Yeah, that's what I thought too.

BTW: I was reading over your site quite a bit. Looks great! Lots of good information, but I was not able to find a description of the type of file to send in for mastering (per my question here), rather than mixing. Maybe it would help to just give a brief description of this on one of your FAQ's so when folks who aren't "in the know" regarding this issue check out your page they can get it rather than asking the same question...

-mr moon

[Massive Master]

Sorry, I suppose it's a bit buried...

http://www.massivemastering.com/html/audio_formats.html

Keep in mind that it's not always the same everywhere. Although, you can hardly ever go wrong with 24-bit 44.1kHz PCM (wav, aif, etc.) files anywhere.