If you are going to send your engineer all the tracks from your next project, you want to be sure to do it properly. This way you will save time, money and will make the whole process much more easy-going. Don’t know how? No worries, here you have a few key guidelines before exporting/bouncing/consolidating (each DAW has a name for it) for mixing
1. Send only the tracks you want to be in the mix.
Nowadays, the digital domain and technology in general, allow us to record as many takes as we desire, this can often end up in a huge stack of files and a huge headache for the mixing engineer. Picking your favourite takes should be part of the production before the mixing stage starts, and therefore, it is not normally part of the job when you hire a mixing engineering (unless there is a previous agreement for that)
2. Name your tracks appropriately
The best way to go is to try to keep it simple and clean. Short and simple is usually the best way to proceed (Kick, Snare, Lead Vocals, etc.).
3.Organize files by folders
The engineer will appreciate if there is a good organization and the .zip files and folders have easy to understand names. The more time your engineer saves during this organization process the more time he can dedicate to your mixing.
4.Remove effects
Make sure there are no processing effects on the master bus or any other channel; remove eq, compressor and any other plugins. It is always better if you let the mixing engineer work over raw files instead of files which are already processed. However, you should keep creative effects, preferably exported as a separate track (filters, delays etc.)
5. Make sure all the files have the same length
All the files should start at the same time. One of the most important points is to ensure all your files have the same starting point and the same length so they will line up properly when they are imported into another session.
6. Leave headroom. Don’t normalize your tracks
Regarding audio levels, please consider to leave some ‘headroom’ and ensure that no audio channels are peaking or with any kind of undesirable distortion.
7. Export in WAV/AIFF. Forget about mp3
All the tracks should be delivered in a professional lossless audio format (WAV, AIFF) and at least 44.1 KHz sampling rate.
8. Add useful information
Extra Information you should include with your files: Tempo (BPM), Key signature, Your rough mix,
9. Try to provide references and clear instructions
Some times is hard to deal with technical words within the audio world. Your engineer will appreciate if you send him a few references, similar genres’ tracks that you like how the sound. It’s much better if you give him these references and clear instructions than abstract concepts like “I want it to sound deeper”.
10. Check if everything is okay
You don’t want to expend a lot of extra time sending something wrong and doing the whole process again. Remember to verify each song before sending it. This way you can ensure that there is no missing tracks, bad edits, clicks, weird transitions, synchronization’s problems etc.
