Preparing your project for mixing/mastering

1. Perform: Make sure you capture the best possible performance. Editing will obviously help but there is no substitute for a solid performance on every track. 

2. Capture: Most great records capture great performances in appropriate acoustic spaces with good microphones, through good preamps, through good A/D converters, and are then edited with skill. Every link in this pre-mixing chain matters and will dramatically affect the final outcome. While we like to help artists of all levels, it's important that you consider these foundations and manage your expectations accordingly if anything could have been better. 

Most modern recordings use 24-bit over 16-bit. Sample rates of 44.1k, 48k, 96k, and 192k are all commonly used these days. 

**Live drums should be edited before the other instruments are recorded so that timing issues don't carry over. 

3. Edit: Even great performances usually need editing; Especially drums and vocals. 

These days, drums are pretty much always edited to be in perfect timing with the song tempo. Make sure someone with experience does this editing and uses something like Beat Detective and not something TC/E related (like Elastic Audio). All drum tracks should be edited together. Editing snare timing means editing the same timing on all tracks simultaneously. Make sure every intended drum hit is present and sounds like you think it should. Seriously, don't do this step yourself if you don't know how. Let us know if you need help. 

Vocals should be tuned and quantized. All harmony and backup vocals should be adjusted to align perfectly, word-for-word, to match the main vocal (unless the phrasing is intentionally different). 

Guitars, bass, and other instruments should be 100% in tune and should be edited for any timing/performance issues. Same goes for all other instruments (piano, strings, horns, etc)

**If you need help with the editing step, let us know beforehand and we can work something out. Editing is not part of mixing and should be completely finished before mixing begins.

4. Commit virtual instruments and plugins: All of our mixing and mastering is done by working with .WAV files that you will submit. You will need to commit any virtual instruments or MIDI-based data into actual audio files. Make sure the sample rate and bit depth match the rest of the files in the session. Tracks that have plugins should be committed (if you really want to commit) so that only .WAV files are submitted for mixing. 

5. Review each track individually:  Make sure you review each track in solo to ensure you don't hear any pops, clicks, distortion, or other surprises.  Make sure all fades are where they should be and nothing else if off. 

6. Consolidate all tracks: Once you've edited and listened to all tracks, it's time to consolidate them and make sure they ALL start from the beginning of your session. This way it's easy for us to import the .WAV files and not worry about spotting the clips into place. 

File type:  .WAV files only, consolidated to session start. All files must have the same bit depth and sample rate.

Bit depth:  16, 24, or 32 bit

Sample rate: 44.1k, 48k, or 96k. 

File names: Clearly name each file so it will make sense to your mix engineer. "John Lead" may make sense to you, but "Lead Guitar" or "Guitar Solo" is much better. Also, try not to use "L" and R" for drum directions. Use "H" for hi-hat side, and "R" for ride side (ie. OHH for Overhead Hat Side). 

DI tracks: Please include all original electric guitar and electric bass DI tracks in case any re-amping is necessary to get tones that fit the mix.

Dry vocal tracks: Vocals should be recorded in a treated room with no reverb or room noise of any kind. Compression will amplify reverberations and make professional sounding vocals difficult or even impossible to achieve.

Drum samples: If real drums were recorded, feel free to include 10 to 12 samples of each drum and cymbal hit from very light to very hard. Make sure the snare includes full rim shots for the hardest hits. Don't play the kick with any cymbal hits.

Other notes:

-All .WAV files should be delivered in one folder. The folder should be named "Song Name (Tempo)." An example would be "Time To Live 165 BPM." If there are tempo changes mid-song, we will discuss and map tempos after file delivery. 

-No session files or session templates. We mix from scratch with only the audio files you submit.

File Type: Stereo .WAV

Bit depth:  16, 24, or 32 bit

Sample rate: 44.1k, 48k, 96k or 192k. 

File Name: Artist and Song Name ie. "John Smith - Time To Live"

Loudness: Full-song average of -20 LUFS if possible. Basically, try not to send a mix that's already too loud for processing. 

Click here to send a quick email to us: