From my mixdown to master.

[Blight]

Hello everyone. First, let me say this is a great forum and I’ve gotten tons of valuable advice here. I wish it long life and it will receive my continued patronage.

So here’s my deal: I’m a solo artist making a record. I’ve been experimenting and making demos for years (starting with a simple four-track, digital, advanced four-track, computer), but I’ve never gone through the whole process of turning my recordings into a complete, listenable non-home-made-CD. From what I’m reading here’s how I understand it:

1. The recording and final mixdown (which I’ll be doing).

2. My mixdown is professionally mastered by a mastering studio.

3. And from that I receive a master which I get duplicated and packaged by another company.

And poof! I have a bunch of CDs I have to figure out how to sell at a profit. Here’s the part I’m most worried about though: It’s the part between 1 and 2. What file format should I give to the studio? Is there a preferable physical medium? Help me clear up the details regarding how I get what I record mastered!

I’m recording from my mixer straight into Cool Edit Pro, so thankfully it’s much more flexible than my tape days. I’m confident that I can get a good mixdown, but what I can I do to make the mastering guy’s job easier?


Thanks in advance,
-b

 

[daav]

I'd contact mastering studios near you and ask them abnout formats etc.

Lots proabably use pro tools, which i believe is propietary and might require conversion from specifc wav files, ortherwise they might have preferences.

daav

 

[Blight]

Thanks, I'll do that.

 

[Massive Master]

There isn't a place I can think of that wouldn't want 24-bit PCM files at the project's sample rate (assuming you're talking about digital "in the box" mixes).

 

[Blight]

Awesome. Thanks guys. Oh so much research to do...