Mixing down for mastering.

[glenroy]

I have sixteen tracks that i want to send to my Ozone 5 mastering plugin. Do i have to mix down the tracks to one stereo track or can i just send them to a final outgoing stereo bus that has the plugin, will i get the same results.

 

[Pahtcub]

If you are not using any external gear or summing mixer it should yield the same results, I often do a rough mastering to bring my songs to level on the master bus this way I can compensate is the compression kills my drums attacks in real time. I will however remove this processing before mixing down to give to a mastering house.

 

[ecktronic]

I would suggest bouncing the mix to a stereo file then save it.
You can then import this into your DAW and work on mastering it, but I don't suggest mastering your own mixes unless all you are doing is adding some compression and limiting if wanted/needed.

G

 

[RAMI]

I would suggest bouncing the mix to a stereo file then save it.

I agree.

There's nothing wrong with what Pathcub does either, if you want to hear how it will sound "mastered". But if you apply the "mastering" to your mix, you'll never be able to re-"master" at a later time.

 

[glenroy]

Thanks for the advice everyone.