Good mixes preparation for mastering goes a long way toward a better sounding and less costly result. Preparing for mastering is an important step. The followings are some useful advices for mastering preparation:
book the session at least a week in advance, so you have time to decide about any last-minute question; do not forget, you can have the input from us regarding your mix ahead of time, it's free, and I strongly recommend it.
make a list of the songs in the order you want on the final CD or vinyl. If you ask for certain editing, please write it down; also write down any other thing, like raising the lows into a song, etc.
make sure you provide a list of phone numbers so that you, your producer, and your band players can be reached.
bring the highest resolution mixes you can. Do not buss compress when mixing (except when the type of music is asking for), just make sure the mixes sound good.
if you would like to remove noise, please include examples of the floor noise you want to be removed- a few seconds would be just great.
have a list with the tempo and key of each song; this is needed because, in order to maintain the flow of the album, the very last beat of the first song must stay in tempo with the downbeat of the next one. This is called spread and is used in most of the cases.
include all ISRC codes with the songs in case you want them written, we must have them before we burn the master disc. The codes are written on the CD - in the sub code - Q channel, as every recording has its own code. Each ISRC is a unique and permanent identifier for a specific recording which can be permanently encoded as its digital fingerprint. They make it possible to automatically identify recordings for royalty payments. Each ISRC is 12 characters long; check the internet for more info.
bring with you or send us some recordings that you feel are in the same vein with your music; they will help the mastering engineer to get a sense of what type of sound you're looking for. This is not about trying to copy somebody, but rather to better understand the relation between your music and the sound.
ask the mixing engineer to make a couple of mixes of the same song, make a "vocal up", a "vocal down", a "solo up" and a "solo down"; you may be happy you did that. The compression tends to change the balance of the leads to the track bed, so you give the mastering engineer some room to breathe and get a better final product. It is better to have the vocal too hot than too soft.
use de-esser at mixing for vocal, it gives clarity and keeps the sound from becoming too harsh; even better, ride the fader manually. Also, use an auto-tuner at mixing, we can not bring the voice in tune at mastering. Pay attention to cymbals, they are usually too hot. De-essing is extremely essential for mastering for vinyl, please contact us for more details.
