Ready for Mastering

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Lee123

New member
This should be an easily answered question....hopefully....:-)

What should I do or not do to my mix's before I send them for Mastering?
Currently I treat each individual track as I need to to get my desired mix, then I make sure the volume is as high as I can get it without clipping....then I render the mix down to a stereo track (.wav). Is there anything else I need to do to the mix before sending off the cd?
Thanks
Lee.
 
Lee123 said:
then I make sure the volume is as high as I can get it without clipping....
Click to expand...
Why???????

IN any case, if you're sending it off for mastering, get your mix balance right and do nothing else... leave the overall level for your ME. The least extraneous processing you do, apart from getting the mix right, the better.........
 
Bruce is right, don't sweat the level.

The more important issue is getting the EQ and levels of the individual tracks correct. It's very difficult to change this after it's been mixed to 2 tracks. For example, if the guitars are bright, but other parts of the mix are dull, it's going to be very difficult to find a good compromise between all of them. Likewise if the guitars are loud, it's difficult to bring these down and raise the vocal level.

Other tips:

Don't overprocess especially when not needed (e.g. normalization)

Keep the tracks at the highest bit depth possible (24 bit). Hopefully you can deliver the files on a data CD rather than an audio CD.

Save the files at the same sample rate used to record the material.
 
Click on the "Mastering - Getting the Most from Your Mix" link on the MM home page... It's not the end-all-be-all, but there are some typical things to do AND to avoid to make things go smoothly...
 
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