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BEFORE YOU SUBMIT YOUR MIX FOR MASTERING
1. The Final Mixdown
Mastering is like polishing a diamond: The better the raw material, the better the final product. That means you should be really satisfied with your final mixdown before you submit it. Some people believe a mastering engineer can turn any audio file into a banging hit. That’s not true. Mastering is all about enhancement, so the quality of your mix is essential.
2. Loudness and Levels
The sweet spot for the master level is between -6 and -3 dBFS, so please make sure you mix peaks in this range. Don’t use any effects that make your final mix louder. That’s our part of the job and our state-of-the-art equipment will make sure that your track is on par with major productions in terms of loudness and pressure.
3. Clipping and Limiting
Clipping is is a disaster for your mix, because it distorts the audio signal. We can’t fix that during the mastering, so please make sure your mix never ever exceeds 0dBFS. The use of a limiter is problematic, as well. It often creates acoustic artifacts that can mess up the entire mix. Don’t use any limiters, please.
4. Track Length / Fade In and Fade Out
To make sure we really get all of your production, please leave 3–5 seconds of silence at the beginning and at the end of your mix. Of course we will make sure it starts and ends just where it should once we finished the mastering. If your track shall fade in or fade out, you can either do that yourself or just tell us to do it for you.
5. Reference Track
If you already have a very particular idea how your mastered track should sound like, and if you can share with us a reference track or a popular production, please do so. It might help us to achieve exactly what you’re looking for. The style of this reference track should be somewhat similar to your own mix.
6. File Formats
Please submit your mix in .wav or .aif format, stereo, ideally in 24-bit audio depth. Keep in mind that .mp3, m4a, .wma or any other compressed file formats are not acceptable for a high-quality mastering.