Getting prepared for audio mastering (tips and suggestions)

Hi all my name is Barry from SafeandSound online mastering, I hope to embellish this post with some useful information for musicians and DJ's and producers.

If you have decided to opt for stereo 2 track mastering (as opposed to stem mastering, more on that later)
then you need to prepare audio files as follows:

After mixing you will export a file for mastering. Whether it is self finalizing in a new DAW session or for professional mastering
please remove the limiter before bouncing out. In addition check for any peaks above 0dBFS (i.e. clipping). If you spot clipping then please pull down the master fader by the amount required to stop clipping. (This is an acceptable compromise compared with rebalancing an entire mix)

1)Export from your DAW at the sample rate of your project.
2)Export from your sequencer at 24 bit resolution.
3)Have a listen through on headphones to check for clicks 30pct of files received for mastering have click in them. This can stop any unnecessary delays and is always best done at source wherever possible.
4)Ensure the exported file is a stereo interleaved .wav or .aiff

Require stem mastering? You can do as above but do so for each group of instruments, not it is important to
ensure that you export from exactly the same place in the timeline.

For example bass, synths 1, drums, vocal, effects etc. Stem mastering uses grouped instruments as opposed
to a single stereo mix down. This can help improve the gelling of the mix and allow the mastering engineer to target specific areas of concern or sonic issues that are detected. You may also supply a limited version of the mix down in order the mastering engineeer to assess, in terms of your anticipated perceived level and what you heard during mix down.

Best wishes for 2012 !

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