Getting tracks ready for mastering

D

Ding Dong

New member
I am currently working on a recording that is going to be sent in for professional mastering. This is the first recording project I have done that is going to be commercially released and I want to make sure everything goes smoothly. I am using Logic Express 8.

My main question is about the best way to export each song and the file format I should use. I have bounced from Logic to make Mp3 and AAC files, but I believe these are compressed formats and I want to keep the audio as pure as possible. I'm not sure what format mastering engineers usually prefer.

I also am wondering about the importance of roughly equalizing the volume of each song against each other. My understanding is that this is mainly the job of the mastering engineer, but do I need to do a rough adjustment myself?

One other question, and I may just be neurotic, but when I play back in Logic some of the songs end up clipping a small amount in the output channel, by which I mean a red number appears above the output VU meter from time to time. There is no audible clipping, I just want to make sure this isn't going to cause any problems for the mastering engineer.

Thanks in advance!
 
I'm no ME and I don't play one on TV :D
but I'm thinkin WAV files would be best.

Don't worry bout matching the levels of the songs. Your ME will take care of getting the loud and soft songs on the same level.

I would, however, be worried about the clipping. Even if it's not audible, you're takin up headroom that the ME could really use to make your stuff sound better. I tend to keep my mix levels no higher than say -12 to -10. It may seem low but in the 24 bit world, ya got lots of room so why eat it all up in mixdown?

This may be a bit late for you but the tracking levels are just as, if not more so, critical to the end result. I keep my tracking around -18 with peaks around -12. Same reasoning applies. Why use all the headroom right from the start?

anyway, hopefully someone with some savvy will chime in for ya.
:p
 
That's really helpful stuff- thanks.

I did push the drum tracks quite a bit, but I have them on tape so I can mix them back down to logic at a lower level if I need to. I was still in the "I've got to get it as loud as I can to sound professional" mindset...

Seems like as long as I leave enough headroom on the final mixes it'll be ok. I mean, will the stereo wav files I create really care if the drums were tracked to high as long as I bring them down enough in the mix so they don't clip?

I'm about 30-40% into the process at this point so I still have time to make changes if needed.
 
Ding Dong said:
I was still in the "I've got to get it as loud as I can to sound professional" mindset...


Seems like as long as I leave enough headroom on the final mixes it'll be ok. I mean, will the stereo wav files I create really care if the drums were tracked to high as long as I bring them down enough in the mix so they don't clip?

I'm about 30-40% into the process at this point so I still have time to make changes if needed.
Click to expand...

yeah...the "get it louder than the next guy" thing has taken hold unfortunately. :rolleyes:
But I've found that if ya leave the loudness part to the very last mixdown (if "mastering" the tune yourself) all that extra clarity and headroom that you've left from the tracking stage through the mix stage has given ya a great opportunity for an even louder :-)rolleyes: ... ;) ) and punchier master than you could have got the other way.
Besides, ME's have better gear with a different set of ears in a different (acoustically treated) room. At least they should. (pressures on ME Dude :p
But if you're sending it to be Mastered, don't add a heavy compression or heavy EQ to the mixdown you send him. Give him a well mixed, balanced mix and let him take care of the volume, the sheen he can do and the adhesiveness of the project as a whole.

As to the
"will the stereo wav files I create really care if the drums were tracked to high as long as I bring them down enough in the mix so they don't clip? "

that's the thing. the source is where the quality starts. Gain staging is probably close to as important as mic placement or anything else you do. Keeping the levels of the drums lower from the start will give you more freedom later. You may have been pushing your converters out of their comfort zone. I dunno.
But I do know that if you bring your tracking levels down, hell, even as "low" as -24 to -30, you'll still be fine (assuming of course you're in 24 bit :D) cuz with the exponentially larger bits of 16 vs 24 bit, ya have so much damn room that it just doesn't make sense to eat it all up in the first go 'round.

If you've already got a bunch of stuff tracked, back things off into a comfort zone and send a mix to an ME. Let him give ya his thoughts. Many ME dudes will do this, if for no other reason, than to get better mixes to work with in the first place. It's good for both of ya. You get invaluable info and he gets tunage he can be proud to put his name on.
win-win.

Just more thoughts man...
Luck...Kel
 
Clipping is bad in any situation. From what I've been told analog is slightly more forgiving then digital when it comes to clipping. But at the end of the day if you can rerecord the tracks or remix them to stop clipping that will be a better situation. Good luck.
 
Ding Dong said:
My main question is about the best way to export each song and the file format I should use. I have bounced from Logic to make Mp3 and AAC files, but I believe these are compressed formats and I want to keep the audio as pure as possible. I'm not sure what format mastering engineers usually prefer.
Click to expand...

You should bounce the file as a wav. or Aif. format at whatever bit depth and sample rate you recorded and mixed the session at. It's best to have the ME do all the conversion.

Ding Dong said:
I also am wondering about the importance of roughly equalizing the volume of each song against each other. My understanding is that this is mainly the job of the mastering engineer, but do I need to do a rough adjustment myself?
Click to expand...
No, you do not need to worry about roughing the eq or level in.

Ding Dong said:
One other question, and I may just be neurotic, but when I play back in Logic some of the songs end up clipping a small amount in the output channel, by which I mean a red number appears above the output VU meter from time to time. There is no audible clipping, I just want to make sure this isn't going to cause any problems for the mastering engineer.
Click to expand...

It's always best to not have any peaks or (overs) beyond digital zero, and better yet to have your highest peak at -6 dbfs.
 
Ding Dong said:
I mean, will the stereo wav files I create really care if the drums were tracked to high as long as I bring them down enough in the mix so they don't clip?
Click to expand...
The main question there is what one did in order to push the tracks that hot. Often a hot recording indicates a hot signal coming from upstream in the recording chain, not just pushing the digital recording level.

If they are that hot because one pushed the gain on their preamp or interface, the issue is not only digital distortion in the form of potential clipping, but long beofre you get to clipping you face a probable unnecessary excess in *analog* distortion that happened before you even got to the digital side, because the signal ran hotter than it needed to in the analog stage. Once this (or any other) distortion is recorded, you're stuck with it as part of the recorded signal, no matter what you set the mix levels for.

G.
 
Im glad I asked ahead of time. I have all the drum takes on analog tape and everything else is tracked digitally (with plenty of headroom). I was already planning on going back and remixing the drums on a few songs, might as well do them all at this point. You see, my approach is a little unorthodox, i mix from the tape to a stereo track on logic, not individual tracks for each drum mic, because I only have two inputs on my audio interface. Makes it harder to go back and make adjustments, but it's not impossible. I imagine my tape machine (TSR-8) will play steady enough to avoid any track-alignment problems, and if not, I suppose I will just have to play surgeon in logic. Thanks for the advice folks!
 
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