Preparing Your Files For Mastering (Part 1)

Preparing your files for mastering is an important step in ensuring that your music sounds polished and professional. Not just technically, but creatively as well.

Preparing your files for mastering is an important step in ensuring that your music sounds polished and professional. Not just technically, but creatively as well.

Ask yourself the question: "Are 100% satisfied with your mix"? If the answer is "Yes", then that is great! Step 1 is complete... Click HERE to continue! But if your answer is "No" or "Hmm... i'm not sure" then you should really continue reading this.

The formula for creating great sounding music is this: The better the recording, the better the mix, the better the master. It is as simple as that. Your mix, pre-mastering, should sound exactly how you want it to. Perhaps it won't have that gloss, or sparkle, or 'posh sound' that you typically get from mastering, but as far as a foundation goes, you should always be happy with your mix before you consider sending it to a mastering engineer.

Any mix issues are best corrected or addressed as early on in the production stage as possible. Making tweaks to mixes or even re-recording parts will always deliver better results than just relying on mastering to ‘fix’ any issues.

"Imagine baking a birthday cake. You don't follow a recipe and just throw anything together. It tastes dry and is burned on the outside. Putting icing and candles on top of it will only hide so much but it will never make it a better cake."

Using reference masters can always be very handy. These can be masters done by AI software (such as Izotope Ozone) or simply by using a limiter on your output to bring the level up to a competitive level. Hearing your mix in this way can help highlight potential problematic areas, such as distorting kicks, and buried snares, which can give you the chance to address these before sending them over for mastering.

Lastly, remember to talk to us! Sometimes it's not always possible to fix issues in a mix so just a little note highlighting anything that you think may need looking at will really help. Remember, we are human! And can take things into consideration and offer feedback on how or what to do with mixes that aren't really hitting the spot.