Preparing Your Mix for Mastering
Getting your mix ready for mastering is mostly about avoiding preventable issues. This guide covers what to check before exporting, including master bus processing, headroom and the additional files and information worth sending.
If your mix is already finished and you just want to know which settings to choose when exporting it, read How Should I Export My Mix for Mastering?
Introduction:
Preparing a mix for mastering is generally much simpler than preparing multitracks for mixing, but there are still a few important things to get right. The aim is to provide a clean, high-quality stereo file that sounds the way you want it to sound, without preventable technical issues getting in the way of mastering.
While the below covers best practice, there can of course be exceptions depending on the project. If you have any questions at all, please do get in touch.
Master Bus Processing:
If you have a limiter on your master bus purely to make the mix louder, bypass it before export. If the limiter has become an important part of the sound or balance of the mix, send both a limited and unlimited version. I’ve covered this in more detail in Should I Remove the Limiter Before Mastering?
It is also worth removing any non-essential master bus processing that has been added purely to make the rough mix louder or more exciting. This might include compression, EQ, saturation, stereo enhancement or clipping that is not actually part of the sound you want to preserve.
If a particular master bus effect is a deliberate and important part of the sound, you do not necessarily need to remove it. If you are unsure, export two versions, one with the processing and one without, and label them clearly.
Headroom:
Make sure your final mix is clean and not clipping. You do not need to make it peak at -3 dBFS, -6 dBFS or any other exact number. I’ve covered this in more detail in How Much Headroom Should You Leave for Mastering?
There is also no need to make your mix as loud as possible before sending it for mastering. If it sounds quieter than commercially released music, that is completely normal. If you’re wondering whether there’s a particular LUFS or loudness target you should aim for, have a read of How Loud Should My Mix Be Before Mastering?
Export Settings
Once your mix is ready, export one complete stereo WAV or AIFF file. My guide to How Should I Export My Mix for Mastering? covers the full workflow, including bit depth, sample rate, normalisation, export range and checking the finished file.
If you are sending multiple songs for an EP or album, please label each file clearly with the artist name and track title.
References
If you have a rough mix version that you have been listening to throughout production, it can be helpful to include that alongside the clean export for mastering. This gives the mastering engineer a sense of the balance and energy you are used to hearing.
You are also welcome to include a text file or PDF with any relevant notes, such as the artist name, track title, BPM, and any specific concerns or requests for the master.
Feel free to include links (YouTube is fine) to professionally released tracks that reflect a tone, loudness or overall feel you like. They’re completely optional, but if you do send one, let me know what you like about it. I’ve explained how I use them in Should I Send a Reference Track to My Mixing or Mastering Engineer?.
Need mixing first? Read: Preparing Your Multitracks for Mixing