Prepping a Track for Mastering?

Night Spirit · Post by **Night Spirit** » Wed Dec 03, 2008 4:18 am

Sending my first track off to be mastered and I'm wondering what I should do as far as dithering, master channel compression etc. What I do know is that they want a 24 bit WAV file. Should I leave the dithering to them? I assume they have better compressors than me, so I dont have any on the master channel.. any input? Thanks!

Tarekith · Post by **Tarekith** » Wed Dec 03, 2008 5:04 am

Do not dither, do not put ANYTHING on the master channel. Get your mixdown sounding how you want, try and leave 6dB or so of headroom on the master if you can. Just make sure you're not clipping the master. Send them a 24bit/44.1kHz wav, unless the want 88.2 or 96k instead.

buzby · Post by **buzby** » Wed Dec 03, 2008 7:01 pm

i would like to know more about this

Tarektih - do you have anymore info on this somewhere ? or know a good place to read up on this

i am putting a few tracks together and was contemplating using your mastering service at sometime in the future ...

i was wondering about other things like side compression on drum tracks etc - do i render the separate tracks with side compression on or is this something done in the mastering process -

if tracks are rendered with side compression on and it is done badly is it difficult to correct the sound etc

cheers ...

laird · Post by **laird** » Wed Dec 03, 2008 7:11 pm

neither mid/side compression nor side-chain compression are things you should just do because you think you should do them.... do them if you have a specific need for a particular isntrument/track.

as for "should you put them on the master channel before sending them off to be mastered": no.

And a preemptive link to Tarakeith's guide to mastering:
http://forum.ableton.com/viewtopic.php?t=72222

buzby · Post by **buzby** » Wed Dec 03, 2008 7:13 pm

smeshing mate

i ll have a read of that

cheers

Tarekith · Post by **Tarekith** » Wed Dec 03, 2008 8:26 pm

Here's the mixdown one as well:

http://tarekith.com/assets/mixdowns.html

buzby · Post by **buzby** » Thu Dec 04, 2008 1:11 pm

appreciated

will have a read

karl · Post by **karl** » Thu Dec 04, 2008 3:49 pm

i thought you would of left the sidechain still in the e-qeud mix for the master,,how else would you then put the sidechain back on the mix once it was mastered !!

paralell compression is a good technique used for years in mastering !!

kraze · Post by **kraze** » Sat Dec 06, 2008 5:09 pm

24-bit and 6db headroom are general rules of thumb for electronic music.

However, I've had really good results when they've asked for one without side chaining, vocal on seperate track or some other variation, if they can do such a thing for an extra fee i'd recommend it because it can really cause some magic to happen.

Tarekith · Post by **Tarekith** » Sat Dec 06, 2008 5:54 pm

Usually you'd leave something like side-chaining in place, if the person doing the mastering thinks it's too much, they'll likely let you know and ask you to fix it in the mixdown. What kraze is talking about is called stem mixing, or mastering stems, it's another option as well. It usually costs more though, since it takes more time and is kind of a cross between mixdowns and mastering. Again, most mastering guys usually prefer just a stereo wav, and if they think a stem would help solve a specific issue, they'll let you know.

Night Spirit · Post by **Night Spirit** » Sun Dec 07, 2008 5:15 pm

When talking about headroom, how am I measuring this? Is the line on the live main channel meter the rule of thumb, below it? Not sure exactly how to know if I've got 6 db of headroom say... ? Thanks.