Preparing for mastering

N

not4ne1

New member
Can someone help me out with my mix before mastering? I'm preparing to send me songs off for mastering but they say there should be NO processing on the master buss.I've mixed the WHOLE thing with a little processing on the master. About 1:5 ratio compression (1-2 db peak reduction), slight EQ bumps (.5-1 db)at the low and high end and waves MaxxBass. So my mix sounds pretty fair but when I simply deactivate these plugins, the sound changes quite a bit, well, at least more than I'm comfortable with. So what do I do? I have yet to get a satisfying sound without at least a little master buss processing. Do I send it with the slight compression/EQ or do I send the less than stellar unprocessed sound?
 
At the very least communicate this with who you're using. If what you have on the mixes makes part of what they are the question can be will they duplicate or even improve on it (to your liking.) Sending both versions is a common way to go for that reason.
 
Its my experience and I've read many times, a mix on the dull side comes out better than a mix that already has "bite" to it. The more you max out your mix, the less can be done at the mastering stage. So its a tricky question, do you trust the mastering house your using to give your mix/master the sparkle your looking for? Can they do a demo for you so you can see what their sweetening would sound like, compared to yours?
 
I would send them the unprocessed version and if they don't think it's right, remix the entire thing from scratch, it is often easier to remix things than try and get the wrong mix sounding right.
 
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