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Quality First
In House Recording
Mixing & Mastering
Professional Sound
Are you interested in our mixing and mastering services and wondering how to properly send us the audio files for your upcoming release? Or have you already had tracks mixed and mastered by us, and are you looking for some tips and tricks? Whether you’re a live band sending us audio for mixing and mastering, or a rapper or singer, it’s crucial to know how to export and deliver your audio files to avoid any surprises and make the most of your song. In this quick guide, I’ll walk you through the key steps to ensure you’re exporting audio files like a seasoned pro!
Picture this: you’re a vocalist recording backing vocals for your new release. While you’re in the zone, you also capture some ad-libs during the same take. You label the file as “backing vocal A,” forgetting that the ad-libs are mixed in with the backing vocals. Now, our audio engineers are left in the dark, unaware that some of those takes were meant to be ad-libs. When we mix your song and make it available for download on your account, you suddenly hear your ad-libs mixed in as backing vocals! This highlights how incorrectly exported audio files and even small oversights like labeling can create confusion and result in lost time. Proper organization is essential for a smooth collaboration and ensuring your vision comes to life exactly as you intended!
It’s essential to start off on the right foot. The tricky part is that exporting audio files correctly can be more challenging than it seems. What effects should you leave on, and which ones should you remove to avoid clashes in the mix? How do you label the audio files, in what format should you export them, and what sample rate is best to use? These are all important factors to consider. You’ve chosen our mixing and mastering services because you’re after quality, so we need to make sure that no quality is lost during the exporting process.
What we always emphasize is that someone should be able to understand the track just by looking at the audio files – whether it’s through the arrangement or the naming. As a musician, you’ve been with the track from start to finish throughout the creative process, so it’s natural that you know exactly where everything is. But for our audio engineers, who receive the entire track all at once, it’s a completely different story! Let’s dive into some essential tips to help streamline the process.
One of the first things to clear up is the difference between WAV and MP3. WAV is a lossless format, meaning the file is an exact, uncompressed representation of the audio – untouched, pure material. MP3, on the other hand, is a compressed version designed to reduce file size, which means an MP3 contains less audio information to work with. Information in your audio files is crucial for mixing and mastering, that’s why you should always export your files in WAV format.
If you only have the MP3 version of some of your audio files, there’s no choice but to use it. However, avoid converting an MP3 back into WAV, as this won’t restore any of the lost quality and won’t improve the file for mixing or mastering.
Another crucial step for a smooth process is consolidation. It’s essential that every element of your track, whether it’s the instrumentation or vocals, stays exactly in its intended position. Consolidating your audio files ensures that all the files are the same length, preventing any discrepancies in start and end times. If you don’t consolidate your audio files and send them as-is, a vocal that starts at 1 minute 20 seconds in your session might start right at the beginning in ours. And that’s definitely not what you want!
Next, let’s discuss sample rate and bitrate. We’ll keep the technical details brief, but in essence, sample rate can be thought of as the density of information in your recordings or audio files, while bitrate indicates the quality of that density. For example, you can store lower-quality and less dense information at a sample rate of 44 kHz with a low bitrate, or you can achieve higher quality and more density with a sample rate of 48 kHz and a high bitrate.
We recommend working with at least a 48 kHz sample rate and a 24-bit bitrate. Always export your audio files at the same sample rate and bitrate you used for recording. This practice ensures compatibility and optimal quality throughout the mixing and mastering process. At our studio, we operate at 48 kHz, so if you match that in your recordings, everything will align perfectly with our systems!
Now that we’ve covered file types, sample rate, and bitrate, let’s move on to FX. The crucial question is: which effects should you keep, and which should you remove? As a general guideline, we recommend uploading two folders through our upload form: one folder with dry audio files and another with wet audio files.
So, what do dry and wet mean? It’s simple! Dry means all effects are removed, while wet includes all the applied effects. We will load both the dry and wet versions of your audio files into our session and use whatever best enhances the quality of your track and brings your vision to life. If you’re thinking, “I have no idea what I’m doing and what effects I’m using,” that’s perfectly fine! Just bypass everything, send us your dry audio files, and we’ll manage it from there!
Every song is different, and you’ll notice this when sending your audio files! With one track, you might encounter no issues at all, while another may have specific nuances. Sometimes you might have a demo mix ready, and other times you may not. That’s completely fine; we shouldn’t complicate things.
As long as your sample rate is correct, your recordings are of good quality, everything is consolidated, and you have your dry and/or wet files clearly organized and labeled, we can usually get to work without any problems! If you’ve created a demo mix where you’ve adjusted the volumes to position each element of your track exactly how you want it, that’s even better! It helps us understand how you want certain elements positioned in your song. And just a quick reminder: always keep a copy of your recordings. You never know when you might need them!
Are you looking for the next step in your musical career? Do you need a music studio where you can work independently, or where you can enhance your team with our trained in-house audio engineers? We’re here to support you! If you’re not located nearby, you can always take advantage of our online mixing and mastering services.
Our Music Plan might be perfect for you, allowing you to access all our music studios, services, and audio engineers for an affordable monthly rate. This makes professional audio production both affordable and convenient! Feel free to reach out to us for more information.