How to Prepare Your Mix for a Mastering Engineer by Brad Pack
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“The one call you will never get from me as a mastering engineer is ‘hey can you send me a version with the limiter off?’ My suggestion if a mastering engineer calls you and asks you for a version with the limiter off and you know you have a solid mix, you should tell them ‘I’m sorry, I’m gonna find another mastering engineer”
Handing your track off to a mastering engineer can be stressful, especially if you’ve never done it before. Each mastering engineer has their own preferences, and it can be difficult to know exactly how to process and export your mix for delivery. I often get comments from both my mixing and mastering clients like these: I heard I should take off all my stereo bus processing before sending my mix to be mastered.
I heard I should leave 6dB of headroom on my mix when I send it to be mastered.
I heard my LUFS should be -18 before I send it to be mastered.
I heard you should never limit a mix before sending it off to be mastered.
I heard you should never dither before sending a mix off to be mastered.
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