Preparing for Mastering: What Files (And Levels) Do I Need to Send to the Mastering Engineer?

What kinds of files should you be sending to your mastering engineer? Should you be leaving your buss processing on or off? How loud should your mixes be? Justin Colletti answers all this and more in today's episode.

Want the short answers? Here goes:

-What files types should I send?

Send full resolution WAV files. Send them at whatever bit depth and sample rate you were working on in your session. If you were working at 24/88.2 send that. If you were working at 24/44.1, send that!

-Should I leave my bus processing on, or take it off?

Leave on any processing that was part of your MIX! If you mixed through a compressor, or an EQ, or a limiter, or any other bus processors, leave them on.

If you added them at the end of the process, just for loudness, leave them off. (Though it can't hurt to also send your own attempt at mastering to give your mastering engineer something to "beat".)

-How LOUD should my mixes be?

In this day and age, it doesn't really matter too much! But you'll probably want to send your mixes a bit quieter than you want the final master to be.

A final master in rock and pop genres may often end up anywhere between -14LUFS and -9 LUFS on a loudness meter. So sending files that are on the lower end of that spectrum, or even lower than -14LUFS is good way to go.

A super "safe" range to mix at would be -22LUFS to -16 LUFS for these genres. But if you're getting a great sound by going substantially louder, have at it!

Electronic dance-oriented genres will often end up between -9 LUFS and -5 LUFS after mastering. A good "safe" range for mixing would be -12 to -10 LUFS. But again, feel free to mix louder if you are getting great sounds.

Hip hop masters are often somewhere in between, and can often end up anywhere from -13 LUFS to -6 LUFS after mastering, depending on the subgenre or style. Mixing a little bit lower than where you expect your mix to wind up in the end is a good call.

[davidasher]

Damn! That was a good one. I especially enjoyed the “Negative... I Don’t Care”. 😂 I’m gonna use that next time I get caught up in one of those online forum debates where some guy is telling everyone you have to have 6db of headroom or the engineer won’t take the job. Oh wait! That already happened today. SMH.

[pegtownmanproductions]

Great info thx. Just what I was looking for. I have a mix that I finished last night that will be mastered for vinyl. Late in the evening I added a limiter and now can’t decide if I prefer the limiter version or without. The limiter brought that glue that made it sound complete but without it there’s a bit more clarity and pop to the song. It’s punk so the glue suits but now I'm on the fence.

[yazansakran]

This guy has too few views and likes for the gold he is sharing. Thanks for the information!

[vintergravofficial]

As a solo artist, this has helped me quite a bit. I was just asking my engineer buddy about this because I’m preparing to send off my full length to be mastered after mixing it myself. I’m sitting here trying to keep it “loud” but also kill the peaking and he just told me “you’re gonna wanna send it off quiet, adjust your levels. They’ll do the leg work there for you”.

Thank you!

[richardbradley]

Beautifully said! You confirmed a lot of things I had been wondering about! Many thanks 👍

[goddaddybeats]

Awesome video! I was looking for info on bouncing my instrumentals to "master" for shopping to artists.. But this info was very useful at knowing how to prep a final mix for a full song!!!

[sgfdancecompany]

Great podcast Justin!!!! Especially for the mastering with stems moment, only useful; from my humble point of view, when you are working with movies and TV shows music.

[blankblank]

cool info, i totally agree even to a larger extent. If you want me to master stems than you want me to mix the song, theres no other reason to bounce stems unless you want to change their levels and tonality individually. make sure youre clear on whether you want your mix mastered or you want someone to mix and master what youve created.

[darrenogden]

Super informative and a great delivery as always. Thanks for sharing your insight, you’re a great teacher!

[heavymetalmixer]

Gotta share this video with some friends and mixing engineers, it's a summary of everything I tell people all the time.

[foreverthestudent]

That negative

I don't care was GOLD

[samsmall]

Great advice from the master mastering engineer.

[vocalproductionandeditings]

On all levels this is such an informative video. Great job.

[kumudtsering]

Damn! That “No no no” text book killed me 😂😂😂

[dropwave]

Super great information. Love your channel. Great work!

[uguroktem]

Thank you so much. This is the end of many discussions ;-)

[reymartrapsi]

Thank you Justin. Very precious insights. 😎

[SticksTheJon]

Justin, I have a question. Platforms like Spotify seem to suggest that they will noramlise track playback to -14dB LUFS so on that basis, what would be the point of mastering something beyond that level, only for Spotify to turn it down on playback? Doesn't that just mean that you're effectively limiting your peaks? As an example, you mentioned mastering up to a level of -5dB LUFS but at that point, you'd have to severely limit your peaks. Then Spotify will turn everything down by 9dB and your peaks could have been a lot bigger had you mastered at a lower level. Have I missed something? Thanks for a great video.

[barbierash]

happy new year 2021 Justin!! droppin' hot SONIC SCOOP knowledge as always son!! great level tips for prepping mix for master... -18LUFS seems to be my sweet spot for most mixes going to mastering but like you said, if you can SPANK your mix bus harder for tone and vibe, knock it out the box Luke!!!

[surgerywithoutknives]

Insightful information without waffle ... cheers