Here are a few tips for prepping your pre-masters before sending our way:

1. Leave plenty of headroom. You should aim for peaks of about -4db on your mix bus meters and/or rendered (or summed) pre-master files. Whether you are mixing ITB (in-the-box) or through a mixing desk,  avoid using any limiters or heavy bus compression on the master buss channel insert to artificially increase loudness. Compressing the crap out of a mix audio file, then reducing the file's gain does not equal headroom. Watch your meters when you mix. Tape machine effects on DAW’s ARE a form of compression, so again, please watch the meters, you will find that by not slamming the tape machine inputs, the sound will open up as the dynamic range increases.

2. Level does not equal loudness. Never normalize your digital pre-master files. Don't worry your mix is not sounding loud (or as loud as your favorite record). Focus instead on the attributes within the track that make a mix sound truly loud: pitch, tempo, frequency balance, tonality, transient response & dynamic range. In other words: focus on making your mix sound good. Loudness is entirely perceptual and does not equate to a good or balanced mix - don't kid yourself. We'll work on the final levels during the mastering session.

3. Make sure your fades (fade-ins, fade-outs) are exactly how you want them in your tracks. If you want us to do crossfades, please tell us exactly where you want one track to end and another to start. If you are working ITB, please double-check the file ends for any rendering errors or signal cutoff. Many times low-level signal tail ends of tracks get accidentally cutoff in DAW's like Ableton or Pro-Tools.

4. Take a look at your signal chain- within your DAW or otherwise - and see if there's any clipping. LED meters in any part of your signal chain should never go red: if they are red, it means it's clipping. When things that are not meant to clip do, it sounds terrible and we cannot fix it; once it clips, it's irreversible - much like watching the French film of the same name.

5. Check your phase relationships and pay attention to any phase problems in your mix. If your DAW or mixing board has a "mono" button, always listen to your mix in mono to crosscheck compatibility. See if anything thins out, any sounds disappear, the mix collapses (worst case scenario) or it just sounds "off." If yes, it would mean there are phase problems in your mix. Luckily, there are some really great freeware VST stereometers out there. Voxengo's SPAN for example is fantastic. Learn it and use while mixing to crosscheck as you mix your tracks. Anything below "0," i.e. crossing into the minus realm is out-of-phase.  Always corroborate your mixes with this tool. If there's anything out-of-phase, try correcting the problematic tracks.  If we had a penny for every pre-master we've gotten with phase problems, we could retire in Iceland by now!

6. Be aware of any mastering tools while mixing. M/S Equalizers and Stereo Expanders, for example, are a great tool, but if you could also cause incredible damage, specially if you are only mixing with headphones or in a untreated room. It’s extremely hard to accurately hear the balance between the Mid & Sides sections of the stereo field whenever you are not working with speakers in a professionally treated room. This means you may end up with unwanted phasing issues. Another common pitfall is over-compression. If you must use a master bus compressor, a limiter or tape machine emulation on the whole mix for tonal purposes, please keep an eye for how much Gain Reduction you are using on the overall mix.

7. Any noises, digital glitches, clicks, pops, or hiss in the original recordings will become very audible after the tracks are mastered. Listen to your mixes a few times and be on the lookout for any unwanted errors or mistakes. Brian Eno once said: "Honor thy error as a hidden intention." Make some notes for us, for example, "this noise/distortion on Track X at 1:01 is intentional, please leave it there."  

8. We only work with .wav or .aif files, ideally at 24-bit/44.1 kHz (or greater) bit depth/sample rate. Please don't send us MP3's or any other lossy format. Use the same bit depth/sample rate that your DAW was set to while working on your tracks. Do not up-sample (or dither for that matter - never dither a mixdown).

9. Please send .wav or .aif files using WeTransfer. Please include any reference tracks (i.e. tracks you think sounds amazing) and any notes (.text doc) along with your pre-master files. It always help to hear what inspires you, just to get a feel for your taste and aesthetics.

10. Labeling tracks and projects: Please make sure your files and folders are properly labeled. Please include the Artist Name & Album Title on the folder itself, spelled out exactly how you want it to read on your final masters.

Our preferred format for audio files is:

"FORMAT POSITION TRACK NAME BIT RATE SAMPLE RATE"

For example, a vinyl pre-master would be: "LP A1 TRACK NAME 24 44.1.wav"

Bonus tracks and other non-album material should be labeled the same way too: "BONUS 01 TRACK NAME 24 44.1.wav" for example.