seeking final advice

[montage]

Well, after over a year of recording/mixing my band project is running out of criticism for the mixdowns. Aside of one song that the kick just sounds crazy out of whack, I (as the bass) am running out of complaints. BTW, we as a 5 piece are trying to do as much as we can before sending it off to discmakers.

Anyways my question to you is do you have a checklist that you abide by as you prepare for a CD?

 

[miroslav]

A checklist AFA deciding if the final sound quality is ready for CD...or a checklist AFA the final "assembly" for CD manufacturing...?


I'm just finishing up the CD graphics for my CD project...so I'm pretty much at the same point as you.
Since I did my own mastering on this CD, that was something I spent a bit of time on since I wanted to see what it would take with my gear to get close to a pro mastered sound. The hardest part was learning what to listen for, since I was now trying to improve/change my final mixes who’s sound I was comfortable...so it took time for me to clear my head of the final mix sound and then figure out how to take it to a better quality level.
I did MANY test masters...using different EQ approaches, different compression/level settings...ITB...OTB...tape...etc...etc.
Finally, my ears started to learn what to listen for and I learned how to get some more quality out of my finished mixes using my non-mastering gear, and I have to say, while it was very tedious and time consuming, it was a great learning process, and I think it will actually help me do my mixes a lot better in the future so that I won't have to work very hard when it comes time to master them.

If you are happy with the finished sound of your songs...then AFA prepping to send to Discmakers, just check their website, they have a nice little booklet guide about exactly that...how to prep your album for CD manufacturing, and also some tips on simple things to watch out for that can ruin your CD in the final steps.
Another great, though quite "deep" book is Bob Katz's book on mastering...which also covers a lot of pre-CD processes and concerns.

The most important thing though IMO is that you make sure your are 100% happy whit what you are hearing and how the CD flows from song to song...etc, because they will press/replicate your submitted master CD as-is...unless you have them do some mastering also.
Plus...there are a few guys here that do mastering professionally. Tom Waltz did a free test mastering of one song for me just to show me his mastering skills, and I have to say, his version was really good!

If I hadn't already done my own mastering which I was very happy with, I would have let Tom master the whole album for me and it would have saved me a LOT of time!

Ask some of the mastering guys here...they certainly know what a well prepared CD should be like before it is sent out for manufacturing.

 

[montage]

Thanks for your thoughts; moreso what I was looking for was a "final assembly" checklist. I know bandwise we're tiring of the tedium, but we're very interested in making it the best possible on our own. We've done many careful listenings of all the mixes, and like I've described, members are running out of criticsms, but that's not to say they're may be things wrong on the mixes that we're not necessarily considering/hearing. For instance, the song I mentioned to me suddenly needs some compression tweaking on the kick (there's none; so now it's boom BOOM!, etc.), and I just worry after a lot of hard work there may be some other things that aren't gaining my (or the band's) attention.