Preparing for sending to mastering studio

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Broken_Hal0

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I was just wondering what are the appropriate steps I should take for preparing my songs to be professionally mastered. Usually I mix everything to fairly good levels , run a buss compressor and a waves L2 for limiting. If im sending it to a mastering studio do I still need to mix the track down with my own limiting or should I leave it with quite a bit of headroom for the mastering engineer to work with.

As far as compression goes I know I do not compress my mix at all since it is an irreversable technique and would interfere with how the mix engineer would do his work.

My thoughts are to just mix it the way I usually do and leave my master (Mix) buss empty. I still compress my drum busses and everything like that (Im sending it to mastering engineers not mix engineers)

If I am wrong on any of this please let me know , I have never sent my tracks out for a really good mastering job and am looking forward to the difference it is going to give me.

Cheers
Neil
The Little Studio
 
talk to your masterer (is that a word?). They will let you know what you need to do and what format they need it in.
 
Broken_Hal0 said:
I was just wondering what are the appropriate steps I should take for preparing my songs to be professionally mastered. Usually I mix everything to fairly good levels , run a buss compressor and a waves L2 for limiting. If im sending it to a mastering studio do I still need to mix the track down with my own limiting or should I leave it with quite a bit of headroom for the mastering engineer to work with.

As far as compression goes I know I do not compress my mix at all since it is an irreversable technique and would interfere with how the mix engineer would do his work.

My thoughts are to just mix it the way I usually do and leave my master (Mix) buss empty. I still compress my drum busses and everything like that (Im sending it to mastering engineers not mix engineers)

If I am wrong on any of this please let me know , I have never sent my tracks out for a really good mastering job and am looking forward to the difference it is going to give me.

Cheers
Neil
The Little Studio
Click to expand...

yeah...you want to leave the master channel empty.

Until recently i always leaved it empty, now i fell a little more confident slapping a bus comp with about 2db of compression just to tighten up the mix a bit....it's a really nice plug-in.

but if you are concerned about it then the answer would be to leave it empty.
give him/her at least 5-6 db of headroom.
and if you recorded in 24-bit then give him/her a 24-bit wav.
i would also suggest not to dither..let him/her do it.
if you started the project at 24/88.2 then stay there
if you started at 24/44.1 then stay there.

I'm no seasoned engineer, but this is what i do and it has always worked for me.

one last important note, make sure your Mastering Engineer has a decent set of monitors and a sub.

-mike-
 
Hello,

I usually leave at minimum 3db of head room. I usually do not use a master buss compressor unless I have a really nice one such as the famed SSL4000 or 9000 buss compressor or McDSP's buss compressor is pretty good as far as plugins go. However, when i do this I am more after the sound you get by running the mix through the compressor's circuit. The reduction needle only jumps a tiny bit on the highest peeks, and i try to match the make up gain to the original level. (On the SSL, the make up gain when turned full left actually reduces the overall level even when there is no gain reduction by the compressor. The matched level usually happens when the knob is around 10 o'clock.)

I would deliver to the mastering house a stereo interleaved "2-mix" In the format you that you created your project. They usually like 24/44.1 or 24/88.2 depending on what you use and if it is a music recording bound for CD.

Something to think about is mix "stems," which are stereo mixdowns of the various parts of your recording with all effects and processing. For example, you could chose to mixdown all the parts and have a drum stem, Bass stem, guitar stem, string stem, BGV stem, and Vox stem. Or you could just make a music steam and a vocal stem. It is up to you. IF you where to sum the stems you mix would be intact and completely unchanged. Theses are in addition to your stereo files.

The benefit is that the mastering engineer has greater flexibility to do the best job he or she can. Lets say that the room you mixed in has a buildup around 300 Hz. This could, without you knowing it, compel you to turn the vocal up too loud. Without the stems, in order to correct the problem that showed up at the mastering house, the engineer might try mid/side processing to bring down the vocal. (This is another subject all together) If stems are available, all he has to do is load them up, turn the lead vox steam down a little and sum them again. Much easier and take much less time. Also, only the vocal is affected and not everything around 300 hZ or the center of the image.

I hope this helps, and mixing down stems, to me, is always a good idea.

cheers!
 
The east answer is to simply leave plenty of headroom. Anything you do for the sake of volume is all but guaranteed to come back and haunt you later. No excessive compression (unless it actually serves the mix), no excessive buss compression (if the buss needs that much, something running to the buss probably needs it more), no buss limiting whatsoever, peaks within reason (anything above -20 or so is "within reason" but anything short of clipping is fine as long as it's peaking naturally).
 
dean, you mentioned sending them "stems". This is an entirely new concept to me. Makes total since, and if the mastering engineer is cool with it, I would absolutely recommend it. However, would most mastering houses charge a bit extra for this service, or would they just suck it up and do it? I know some work by the hour, but many work by the song, or by the record. That's whay I ask?
 
I don't know too many places that would work from stems for the same $$$. I have "package" rates based on running time. That doesn't apply to stems. Stem work can go anywhere from maybe 20-30% over (for an incredibly well-planned and flawlessly executed set of stems) to 2-300% over for "not as well prepared" work.

Stems are strictly hourly only, no exceptions.

Okay, ONE exception - If there's an instrumental & vocal stem for a project requiring instrumental/a'capella/radio versions. But then the running time is going up anyway.
 
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