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The
quality of your final mastered track – in large
part – depends on the quality of the mixdown
you send us. The more carefully you
prepare your stereo mixdown for us, the more room we
have to improve it!
In other words: there are limits
on what the mastering process can do for a track
that was not produced and mixed down well to begin
with!
Your Mixdown
If you write your music with careful consideration
to what frequency ranges each of the parts of your
track will occupy, your final mixdown will
be much more well balanced, with more room
for the mastering process to improve it
Consider: – is
your bass interfering with your kick because they occupy
the same frequency range? If so, have you addressed
this with EQ and/or side chaining? Have you chosen
a lead sound that doesn't interfere with the bass?
Is your mix sounding muddy are you finding it hard
to hear parts even before mastering? These things
are all part of your job – mastering cannot fix
a poorly put together mix
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Compression and Limiting
Compression and limiting are fine for individual elements, channels
and / or stems
However:
- We cannot “uncompress” overcompressed
or poorly compressed material so please take care
that the amount of compression you use on your
channels is appropriate – this applies to
both stereo and stem mastering
- We prefer that you do not use any limiting
or compression on the master channel for your stereo
mixdown. If you do use any, please
be sparing.
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Overall Gain
For your final mix – either the stereo bounce
or when preparing your stems - try and keep the
gain of your master channel at least ~-3db under 0db.
This is called “leaving headroom” and
it allows us to give
your track much more end volume, clarity and punch
than you will be able to do on your own.
NOTE: Please do
not push the gain of your master channel
as hard as you can before you send it to us! Try
and resist the temptation to “slam” the
master volume of your track.
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