Mix Prep Requirements

The goal of this document is to help you deliver your project in the best condition possible enabling us to maximize the time and creative energy we can spend on mixing your project by limiting or eliminating any ancillary work which draws from that creative energy which we would prefer to apply to the actual mixing. To this end, we ask you to cover the prep of these four basic areas before you deliver your sessions for mix: Overdub Prep, Technical Prep, Session Prep, and Personal Prep.

If sessions are delivered to us with prep work incomplete, we will contact you as soon as possible to determine the best solution to move forward. Your options will be to complete the work yourself or pay to have one of our assistant engineers complete the work. Although our engineers are very experienced and work quite fast, unprepared session delivery almost always delays projects severely with respect to initially anticipated turnarounds. This is why its imperative that the technical & session preparations outlined below be completed prior to mixing.

Cross-Check Spreadsheets: Before you begin, we can provide you with a google spreadsheet for your project with which you can keep track of your prep, notate anything we may need to know and provide us with song details like tempos, keys, names of singers for each track, etc.

Overdub Prep

Gain Staging: We mix at K-14 so we prefer to have all audio peak no higher than half scale (example: the very first yellow bar on the default ProTools channel meters). When sessions come in to us with audio hotter than that, we need to gain it all back which just adds time to the process.  

  •      Gain for each side of a stereo source should be of identical loudness. (Note, this does not mean identical peak dbFS). Please use RMS or, preferably, LUFS, to match the channels. Always check with your ears, if it sounds unbalanced, it is. Gain between left and right channels should never change relative to each other through a track (as often happens when engineers or artist adjust the gain or level on one channel during a take).

Tracking: All takes should be sonically consistent within themselves, throughout comps, and in context.  

  •      Gain, EQ, compression and/or mic placement should never be adjusted once you being recording takes you intend to keep for options. Work out all the optimal settings/positions first then begin recording.
  •      Comps should not have noticeable audible difference from take to take.

Session Management: Always save a new version of your session before you start a new task. Always make a new playlist before you make destructive edits. Do not leave orphan, or empty, tracks or takes in sessions.

Technical Prep*

Fades and Noise Elimination: Delete count-ins and noise at the front and end of all your clips. Also make sure that the beginning and end of each audio clip in your session has a short fade-in, cross-fade, and/or fade-out to reduce the chance of hearing clicks in your audio.

  •      Although you may not hear them on your studio monitors, clicks can sometimes be heard when a track is soloed or when a mix is played over headphones. And if left in they will become much more audible after mastering.
  •      Make sure that you have cross-fade at EVERY adjacent region (clip) boundary.
  •      Trim out bleed from tom tracks. Fade in should be extremely small (about 10ms) and not interfere with the transient of the hit. Fade out should start just after the bulk of the transient (about 50-100ms after the initial hit) and extend the entire length of the tom’s note decay (until you can’t hear it ringing anymore… sympathetic ringing can be ignored). If there is a prolonged tom grove, do not attempt to trim between every single hit, just treat the whole grove as one continuous element. Treat each tom track individually in this fashion. If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to us.

Comping: Perform any and all necessary vocal or solo comps before you submit for mixing. While some talented musicians can hit their notes perfectly the first take, many times you may need multiple takes to capture the essence of the track. We only need the takes you want in your final product. Although they do bring a creative edge to the project, a mix engineer’s roll is very different from a producer’s, therefore there is no need to ‘let the mixer decide.’

  •      For vocals and solos, comping involves combining the best elements of multiple takes into one composite track. Vocals and lead instruments are often prominent in finished songs, so getting a great comp is very important to the overall polish of your final mix.
  •      For Keys or “backing tracks”, comping involved sub mixing multiple layers that contribute to one overall sound element down to one stereo track. Lets say you have 10 pads of varying textures, which in reality you intend the some of their parts make one cohesive pad “thought” or sound. We don’t really need those 10 separate pads and the task of trying to recreated that one idea/sound. We just want that one final idea/sound summed down to a single stereo track (that doesn’t clip in the process). However, this does NOT mean mix ALL of your synth leads, arps, and pads down to one single stereo track as we will ask you to re-bounce everything separated. Be SURE not to clip ANYTHING when you bounce down (submix). This includes the virtual instruments the sounds are being germinated from, the tracks they are on, and the input of the track they are being printing to. Check your levels at each and every input and output through all points on your signal chain both in the analogue and digital domain and through plugins.
  •      For multi-mic, mono guitar parts, comping means using a tool like Sound Radix’s Auto-Align (http://www.soundradix.com/products/auto-align) to phase align the mics, adjusting the level of the individual mics to taste and then printing those mic down to one mono track per part. (If you are double tracking or ‘layering’ parts, you should wind up with one mono track for each individual layer). 

Track Timing: Make sure your audio clips are in the right place so everything sounds right. Make sure that the major hits on downbeats, accents, and fills all sound cohesive together and not sloppy. Remember that it doesn’t have to look right on the timeline to sound right.

  •      It is our preference that EVERY effort is taken to ensure that anytime the kick is hit simultaneously with a snare or a tom, the transients happen exactly at the same time. Otherwise, the hits sound smeared or flamed. If you are unsure how to achieve this, one of our engineers can easily do this at a small additional cost.
  • Do not time align (quantize, beat detective, etc) individual drum tracks separately to the grid. All drum tracks, room and/or live ambiance must be time aligned as a whole. Hits can be detected from the kick snare and toms for simplicity but the edit MUST be done to all the drums, room and ambiance at the same time to ensure phase coherence. NEVER use elastic audio, or similar time stretching process, on drums or ambiance mics! It is an extremely wise idea to include the original, comped but unedited drum parts as a fail safe.
    • LIVE ALBUMS: Our engineers have years of experience editing live albums. If you are delivering a live album for mix and would like your drums and ambiance to be edited perfectly before you start your overdubs so it feels great and your DAW metronomes are all in line with your live clicks, we can do it at our current hourly rate. This is HIGHLY recommended as we have no way of 100% correcting this if it is done incorrectly and delivered with bad edits committed to the final audio prints.
  •      A “flam” is correctly on the grid when the two hits fall equally on either side of a beat location. Not the first hit of the flam, not the last hit… right smack in the middle.

Tuning: If comping didn’t result in a terrific, in-tune performance, execute any necessary final tuning on vocals or solos with your DAW software or a tuning plug-in such as Antares Auto-Tune or Melodyne. If using Melodyne, include your Melodyne files when you deliver your sessions in case we need to address something (may incur additional costs). If you do not have the experience or tools needed to tune, one of our engineers can tune your vocals at an additional cost.

  • Its a good idea include the pre-tuned versions of your finished vocal comps as a fail safe. Make sure they are clearly noted as pre-tuned or “COMP”. Note, along with original comped but unedited drum tracks, these are the ‘additional’ versions of tracks that we may need.

Harmonic Rhythm Tracks: Sometimes it becomes incredibly helpful to us to have a midi track that contains the harmonic rhythm (standard block chords playing the progression without any embellishment) in each song. This can literally be a copy of the midi for one of the pads tracks or an entirely new midi track. As long as it contains the correct harmonic rhythm with any incidentals, it is useful. We have used this to correct BV tuning, generate “Imogen Heap style” vocoder FXs, or just fix a missing synth part. The list is endless.. If you can provide this, please make it a priority.

*If you are unable, uncomfortable or choose not to do any of this editing yourself we can provide this service at our current hourly fee. Estimates will be sent for approval before work commences.

Session Prep

After all the audio editing is complete, it’s time to actually prep the session. When a session is properly prepped, the mix will proceed in a very efficient manner and allow our creativity to flow unhindered.

Make A Session File Copy: Make a duplicate session file (Save As) and rename it something that’s identifiable to the mix prep so you do not ruin any of your previous work. For example, put “mix prep” in the title so there’s no questions which file is the correct one — I.E. “Song-Title-Mix-Prep.” It’s also a good idea to color the file so you know its status. 

Delete Empty Tracks: It’s not uncommon during tracking and overdubs to create a number of empty tracks in the anticipation of further recording, but end up never using them. Delete these tracks as they just make things confusing and use up computer system resources.

Rendering Out Tracks (Bounce In Place): Modern DAWs will render any plug-ins, automation, volume, and pan settings that are on the tracks when you export them. It is very important that you remove all plug-ins and automation, and that you make sure the faders in the program are set to unity gain or “0”, along with having the pan set at center. When you export them, make sure to export mono tracks in MONO or DUAL MONO, and not STEREO.

Automation, Plugins, Aux Buses and Master Faders: Print (Record) any effects that are part of the songs integrity. For example, a guitar going through “Amp Farm” or a “Telephone Vox” effect. Save the original, unaffected audio in a playlist and make sure you CLEARLY LABEL that it was unaffected original audio. Once this has been done…

  • REMOVE ALL PLUG-INS
  • Please remove all automation from the session.
  • Remove all busses/aux sends from the individual tracks as well as any Aux Masters or Master Faders.
  • Clear out your io setup completely. (This may be done last before “save copy in,” but it must be done)

Delete Unused Tracks and Playlists: PARTS THAT ARE NOT USED SHOULD BE DELETED. Not hidden, but deleted. Hidden tracks will be deleted. This also includes play-lists not being used. DELETE THEM (The number one reason for HUGE files and long transfer times is all the unused play-lists). Ensure that you have removed any related linked audio from the session (being careful not to completely deleted it from your hard drive all together. You may not want it coming to us but you also do not want to erase it forever. 

Arrange Your Tracks: Now’s the time to reorder your tracks so all common elements are together. All drums and percussion should be together, as well as vocals, guitars, keyboards, horns, and so forth.

Color Code The Tracks: If your DAW is capable of it, color-coding tracks of the same family (drums, bass channels, percussion, guitars, etc) makes finding what you need during the mix much easier.

Relabel The Tracks:

  • Many DAWs create track names that tend to be filled with computer gibberish. Re-label these tracks to make them as easily identifiable as possible. For instance, instead of keeping a track name like, “hat43sc223,” change it to something short and easy on the eyes, like, “Hats.”
  • We prefer the lead vocal to be marked as such: “LV,” not “JohnVocal 2.” Similarly, for vocal doubles-“LV Dbl” …etc

MIDI Tracks: Please include any and all final MIDI Tracks in each session, clearly labeled. In rare circumstances we may need to reprint a track or replace a sound with a higher quality versions (while maintaining the creative vision). 

ProTools Session Specifics

Please set your pan law to -4.5db. Please have your session in 32bit. 

Insert Memory Location Points: Insert a memory location marker just before each section, fill, or part of the song with a significant attribute. It’s usually best to place these markers on the closest down beat of the bar the desired location/section starts on/in. Sessions should be notated clearly and correctly so there is no misunderstanding what a part is. I.E. Intro, Vs 1, Pre, Chr, Turn, Brdg, End)

Create Groups And Subgroups: Configure your groups during your session prep. Please use logical groups:

  • Kick (for multiple kicks and/or mics)
  • Snare (for multiple snares and/or mics)
  • Toms
  • Cymbals
  • Percussion
  • Bass (for multiple basses and/or mics)
  • Guitar Groups (EG 1, EG 2, etc… AcGt 1, AcGt 2, etc… Rhy EGs, Lead EGs, etc)
  • LVs (for multiple LVs)
  • BVs
  • etc…

Files to Deliver for Mix:

  • Once all your prep is done and you have deleted any unused audio, choose “Save Session Copy In…” checking the “All Audio Files” box to save a new session and audio files to a new location altogether.
    • Make sure that you open up this new session and that there are no missing audio files (If audio files are missing, whether they are being used or not, we will question the validity of the entire session).
  • Make an extra backup copy of the EXACT session for yourself in case we have any questions, you will be able to see EXACTLY what we have. 
  • From DAW’s Other than Pro Tools:
    • All of the editing above is still relevant.
    • Remove all plugins from each track. But be sure to “print” or “process” VERY specific sounds/FX you wish to keep. Make sure to bounce/render any tracks with sound design or instrument/keyboard/drum plugins to new audio tracks.
      • Stylized FX – Remember, if you have sound design effects that rely on specific plugins, render those as separate sound files. There’s no point in me recreating specific effects move you’ve created. Put those on their own track and we’ll work with that.
      • Don’t slam the audio levels when recording/rendering/bouncing to disk. “Half-Scale” is more than adequate and we prefer audio at this level.
    • All of your audio tracks need to be continuous individual files. This means: no edits in any audio files. Each track needs to be one single file, or stereo file if that is the format your DAW uses. But before you bounce down, buss record (also called: bounce to disk, render, join or make continuous ) you’ll need to prepare the multi-tracks
    • All tracks/files need to begin at the same start-time or same time- stamp. Even if you have something on one track that only plays at the very end of the song, the bounce or render needs to begin at the same time – the very beginning beginning of your song – at the same start- point as all the other tracks/files.
    • Either WAV and AIF files are required. Bit depth must be at least 24 bits, we prefer 32bit. Sample rates can be: 44.1 kHz, 48 kHz, 88.2 kHz, 176.4 kHz or 192 kHz. Don’t change or up-sample before your render, just stay at the same bit depth (unless you are rendering, then go to 32bit) and sample rate you’ve been using in your project.
    • Name your tracks/Files – Clearly name all tracks and files. (example: Kick, Snare, Synth 1, Rhythm Guitar, Lead Guitar, Lead Vocal, Backup Vocal, Backup Vocal 2, etc.).
      • Note: When exporting/bouncing audio from certain DAW’s (ex: Export All Tracks To Audio), the DAW may name each track with the song name/session name and the track name (example: Papa’s Got A Brand New Bag:Keyboards_001). Do not send files in this manner as they will be rejected. Please rename all files and tracks as outlined above.
  • Zip each song/session folder as its own zip. Non zipped sessions/folders will be rejected as we have no way of knowing if everything made it through.
  • We will proved a link to a file server for upload after your booking fee has cleared. 
  • Only one zip containing (one fully edited and prepped session/folder) should be uploaded for each title.

Personal Prep

One often overlooked area in mix prep is mentally prepping yourself for the mixes. Demo-itice is a MAJOR time waster and creativity killer in our industry. The main reasons you hire a mix engineer is for their fresh perspective, professional experience with commercial sonic standards and trends, and creative input/interpretation of your music. This, more often than not, means you may get back something that is entirely different than you have been imagining or listening to for the past number of months and grown accustomed too. This is not necessarily a bad thing. Be open minded and ready for a fresh perspective. If you have some real concrete goals sonically, just include a word document with a brief description of these goals, while being careful not to paint your mix engineer into a box.

Establish Your Reference Point: Play a few songs from a high-resolution source that you’re very familiar on the system you will be listening to your mixes on to just to give your ears a reference point of what commercial mixes sounds like on your system. If you’re system is bass light and you use your revisions to ask for more and more bass, you will be doing your mixes a disservice in the end and the mastering engineer will wind up taking more bass out than is necessary.

Revisions: Its a good idea to remember that just because we offer you two revisions per song, that does not mean its absolutely necessary to use them. If you are purposefully listening for every single element within your mix and how they sound individually, you will almost certainly miss the point of the overall picture of the mix as a whole… which is how the ‘average Joe and Jane’ will approach any song. When was the last time you listened to a new song and immediately heard every little detail? 99% of your listeners are going to experience your mixes for what they are as a total image, and not nit-picking every little tiny detail that you or I might obsess over. When you are getting mixes back, try to approach them as completely new songs to you. 

Alternates, Backing Tracks, Instrumentals: It is not our policy to provide anything outside the main mix prints at delivery. Should you need an alternate print of a song (I.E. Instrumental, no LV, etc), stems, or “Backing Tracks” versions we can provide these at our current hourly fee.

While the technical prep can take a lot of time, session and personal prep generally can be done in 30 minutes or so. That time spent on your end can easily save many frustrating hours and dollars and avoid changing something you may either wind up changing back or regret changing later. Frequent pauses during the mixing process to address improper prep are dampers on creativity and potentially draining on your budget and schedules. If you have any questions regarding any part of the process, please feel free to contact us at your convenience and we will do our best to help however we can.