Pre-mixing requirements

A

antacid

New member
We're almost finished recording our stuff (using Reaper) and are going to have it mixed/mastered by someone else since we're all rank amateurs and we know it.

My question is, what do we need to do in order to get our recorded material completely ready for mixing/mastering before we turn it over? Is there a checklist of sorts that we can go through to make sure that whoever we hire can jump right in and get to work doing their job properly?

Thanks in advance.
 
Honestly, you should be asking the person you are going to employ to do your mastering. He is the one that is going to have requirements, limitations, and preferences. The only advice I have is to make sure you are not clipping, and dont over process the mix, that is the masterers job. Mix it down to the best of your ability, and dont expect that by getting it mastered, it was fix all of your mistakes. Again, mix it to the best of your ability, and leave at least 10 db of headroom.
 
Yes its good to check with the actual engineer you're going to be working with. Here are some things I suggest:
-Remove silence between regions, trim fade in/outs of regions
-Bypass all track effects, reverbs, etc and ensure the track never clips. If an effect is integral to the sound, provide an effected track and a non-effected track.
-Consolidate and export each track from 0:00. 24bits and whatever sample rate you recorded in. wav/aiff
-Clearly label the consolidated file with a meaningful, descriptive word (not "Audio2", rather "Marshall Lead)
-Create a simple text file with your notes, delivery requirements, BPM, Key Signature etc...
-.Zip all of these files together and include files of any reference tracks and rough mix.

This should be a good start and is quite easy to accomplish in Reaper, it will be appreciated.
 
In addition to the ideas above, make sure the performances are acceptable. Little timing mistakes will eventually be heard.
 
Guys, he's ending out for MIXING and MASTERING, and the mixing has to come first.. Which means that he's not going to be sending a 2-track of anythingg, it's not mixed yet.

He has to send out the individual track files.

Antacid, the only thing I can suggest is to solo each track and cut out any un-wanted noise. Also, silence or remove parts where there's nothing playing for more than a few seconds. For example, during the guitar solo, you probably want to silence or cut out the lead vocal track, etc...
 
Thanks for all the suggestions, guys. I've started doing some of this and am also going to ask plenty of questions when I look at somebody to hire.
 
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