Preparing for Mastering

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In Tune Audio

New member
Okay, I have a question for the mastering guys out there. When I'm mixing down a project to send it for mastering, approxiametly what volume should it be at. I read a post where massive said not to bring it up during mixdown, leave that room for the mastering.

I know that when a track is mastered, its generally at -0.2 db. But roughly where should I have it when I send it out. I'm asking specifically for a rap project I'm working on for someone right now, but I'd also like some general guidelines for other styles as well.
 
In Tune Audio said:
Okay, I have a question for the mastering guys out there. When I'm mixing down a project to send it for mastering, approxiametly what volume should it be at. I read a post where massive said not to bring it up during mixdown, leave that room for the mastering.

I know that when a track is mastered, its generally at -0.2 db. But roughly where should I have it when I send it out. I'm asking specifically for a rap project I'm working on for someone right now, but I'd also like some general guidelines for other styles as well.
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It's not the peak level that's as critical as the rms level of the material. For example if you only have 3 Db of headroom but hit
-3 at the peak, it worse than if had hit -.2 and had 10 db of headroom.

Check your rms levels with a good meter, my guidline would be to try to keep the average level at the mixing stage well below what you want to hear in the final product. For the "average" pop song I would shoot for maybe -18 Dbfs rms or more headroom on the mixing stage. -18Dbfs is where alot of meters read 0 on the VU scale so just use that as a guide.

Hope this helps ...
 
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