Finalizing Your Mix and Preparing for Mastering

I just want to add a tiny little chapter. Basically, I was talking about getting the mix accepted and going back in with fresh ears to listen to it again. So, that's why I'm in today, in a new fresh shirt, the next day.

Accepting the Mix

Let's say the mix is accepted now and everybody's happy. There's one last thing you have to do: print the mix and send it off to mastering.

• I usually set myself up a print bus, where I take the output from the mix bus and route it to the print bus. Then, I just hit record.

Important Note on Limiting

One thing that is actually quite important, this is really crucial, is that when you send the mix off to clients to listen to, you can put a nice bit of limiting on it that is loud. However, you don't want to have that on your mix when it goes to mastering. Under no circumstances!

• That's what the mastering engineer is going to do; that's their job. They do this all day long and are probably a bit better at it than we are. So, take the limiter off, this is really crucial, before printing your mix.

Printing Variations

Once you've printed the master mix, it's also a good idea to:

• Print a mix with the lead vocal up a few decibels (like 2 dB),
• Print an instrumental mix (a mix without the lead vocal, which can be used for TV playback), and
• Print your stems.

Clients often want to do remixes of the track and will ask for the stems. Instead of having to load up the session later and interrupt your busy life, just do it now. Get it done and save them on your drive. If someone asks for them, you'll have them ready to send.

Quick Recap of What to Print

1. Stems
2. Instrumental Mix
3. TV Backing Track
4. Lead Vocal Up Mix
5. Master Mix
6. Possibly an Acapella (because that's another thing people ask for)

Preparing to Print Your Master Mix

I'm now going to quickly show you how to print your master mix and what you need to be aware of.

1. I usually put the song name in here so it prints to the file automatically.

   • For example, let's name it "Boy and Girl Master Mix."

2. One last thing we need to do before recording is check our levels quickly.

   • Play the song at a point where it's reasonably loud and try to leave between 3 and 6 dB of headroom for mastering.
   • Mastering engineers like a bit of headroom to work with.

Checking Levels

• There's no point in sending a file that's already hitting the end stops; it just makes the mastering job harder.
• In Pro Tools, if you hold command and click on the decibel display, it gives you a little peak meter.

What I do is:

• Play the track and see what that reads. Let's say it reads 2.1 dB, that's probably a bit high.
• I'll bring the level down on my mix bus by another 3 to 3.5 dB and play it again.

Hitting Record

Once that's set to a nice level, all we need to do now is hit record and record the file.

And Bob's your uncle!

Once you've printed all these mixes, that's your job done. You're finished. Congratulations!