Preparing your tracks for mastering can be confusing, with lots of technical jargon and the fear of exporting things wrong.
If you are unsure what to do, I have prepared a small guide below to help you prepare your exports and a few tips on making the process as smooth as possible.
If any of it is confusing and you need more guidance, I am always happy to talk you through the process.
Step 1 – Check the Mix
Listen carefully to your mix and make sure it’s already feeling good. Listen in different environments and get different opinions. My job is to quality control your tracks and prepare them for distribution – not to ‘mix’ the tracks again. Check there is no clipping on your channels or your mixbus.
Step 2 – Remove Bus Processing
If you’ve finished your mix and you’ve used lots of bus processing, export a version of it and label it ‘hot mix’. This will be my reference to roughly what you want the track to sound like after mastering.
Then remove all processing including EQ, compression and limiting from the master channel and export again.
Step 3 – Check your headroom
Make sure your mixbus has healthy headroom – between -3 to -6 dBTP. This means your Peak reading should be no higher that -3 decibels. If it is more, do not lower the master fader. Instead, bring down your mix.
You can check Peak levels with a free metering plugin like Youlean or by reading the indicators on your fader. This allows me to work with your dynamic range most effectively and not have to repair any clipping.
Step 4 – Export your Files
You should export your files as an interleaved wav or aiff file – not mp3 or any lossy codec. It is always recommended that you export with the settings you set the project up as but my guide is:
Minimum: 44.1khz @ 24-bit
Prefered: 48khz @ 32-bit float
If you are unsure how to prepare your files, please get in touch and I will always be happy to help.
If you have instrumentals or radio edits, please export and send these at the same time.
Step 5 – Send your files
I recommend zipping your files and sending them via WeTransfer.
Step 6 – Send any other notes
Once you send your track, email me with any other notes, reference tracks or thoughts you might have.
An open dialogue is important to ensuring you get the results you want, so always feel free to connect with me in whatever way suits.