Orange County Recording Studio Engineer

Engineering and Production Services
I get projects to mix that have been recorded on a wide range of equipment. Whether you've recorded using software, a dedicated hard disk recorder, modular digital recorder, workstation or analog multitrack you're going to need to get those tracks converted to digital files to make your multitrack recording compatible with all DAWs and hard hisk recorders.

Steps to get your tracks ready for a mix engineer.:

If your project was recorded on modular digital multitracks, ADATs or analog multitrack, you'll need to find someone who can bounce those tracks over to a Pro Tools or a similar DAW so they can be turned into audio files. There are studios and services that can do this for you. Sometimes the mixer or producer can help you get this done but you're always going to do better on price if you find someone yourself.

Once you've got the recording in the DAW, each track of each song needs to be 'rendered','flattened' or converted to a continuous Broadcast WAV, SDII or AIFF File. All files / regions for each track should be consolidated to a single continuous file. Tracks like guitar solos, that only occur during the middle of the song, will end up being one long audio file with silence during the places where there's no sound recorded.

Send the mixer one complete set of flattened, unprocessed audio files which have no plugins or volume automation on them. These files are essential if you want a release quality mixdown. Most mixers, myself included, will not take on a project if the plugins are rendered to every track.

Any signal processing or plugin that's an important part of the production (volume level automation, compression, etc.) should be rendered to the audio file in addition to the unprocessed file. Don't expect the studio or mixer to have the same plugins or processing gear you used on your recording. If you want it on the recording, send it to the mixer in the form of a rendered file. But remember to include the unprocessed version also.

Any 'comped' tracks (multiple tracks compiled into a single track) should be included as a single flattened or rendered file. Original files for the comped track should also be included. If possible send your notes to the mixer so he knows which sections of the tracks were used to make the comped track. If necessary he'll be able to reproduce what you did.

All soft-synths or soft-drum machines must be rendered to audio tracks. If you want keyboards in stereo you'll need to make sure they're recorded that way. Each keyboard patch and drum should be bounced to a single track (it's common to see 6 to 8 tracks on a drum machine alone). Same goes for any Acid loops or similar chunks of software. Make sure you've rendered audio and not just bounced a MIDI track over to a file. Turn off all reverb, delay and effects on these tracks.

There should be no more than one file per track (this is the standard rule). Stereo tracks need to be split into two sound files and labeled 'L' for 'left' and 'R' for 'right' after the track name.

If time code was supported, the original positional reference should be incorporated in the file. If no time code or positional reference was used in the recording process, all tracks should be converted with a start time of the sample count equivalent of 1:00:00:00. All tracks including partial tracks, such as guitar solos, and background vocals need to have the same start time so that the proper time relationships between tracks is maintained. Four clicks should be placed at the beginning of every track as a reference for its start time prior to 'flattening'. The clicks should be placed at the same relative time location for each track.

All files should be copied onto a CD-R, DVD-R or USB flash drive for mixdown. The preferred format for a USB drive is Mac Extended Case Sensitive. A standard formatted (PC Fat 16 or Fat 32) is acceptable if Mac formatting is unavailable.

All audio files should be either 44.1 kHz or 48 kHz sample rates at 16 or 24 bits. Although some mixers will be able to mix 32-bit 96 kHz files you're much safer with 48 kHz 24-bit files as a maximum size.

Do not send your mixer Pro Tools, Logic, or Sonar project files. The likelihood these will work on any system except yours is pretty close to zero.

Mark your CD or DVD clearly with what kind of files are on the disk, the sample rate and the bit depth. This just makes it easier for the mixer to import them into his system and get the project setup. Something simple like, "All files 24-bit 48 kHz AIFF", works fine for me and would probably be suitable for most engineers.

Each song should be placed in its own folder and labeled with the song's title. Each track's file should be named with the instrument that's on the track (ie. Lead_Voc.AIFF). All files should have the suffix indicating what type of audio file it is (ie. Voc.AIFF, Voc.WAV). If there are more than one file with the same instrument, number the file immediately after its name. Numbers 1 through 9 should have a zero (0) preceding them (ie. Lead_Voc01.AIFF). All stereo files should be labeled with 'L' for 'left' and 'R' for 'right' after their file name (ie. Piano-L.AIFF).

Indicate on track logs which files are the desired track to use for mixdown. If no notes are made the mixer will make the decision for you using his discretion. A standardized set of labels and tracks sheets can be found on the NARAS Producers and Engineers Wing website (www.naras.org). These are the same forms I ask all my clients to use.

Make sure you send the person mixing the project your stereo mixes. This will give the mixer a feel for how you intended the song to sound. It can also serve as a guide to where the solos need to be, background vocals and etc.

Send the mixer some examples of what you'd like your final mixes to sound like. If you want your mix to sound like Dave Mathews tell the mixer before he starts. Mix engineers without any direction from you or a record label will mix the project the way they feel it needs to be mixed to be successful. If you're sending your multitrack files to be mixed at the request of a record label you won't have to worry about this. The label knows what they want from the mixes and won't be shy about telling the engineer.

Finally, make sure that you have made a safety copy of your files before you send them to a mixer or producer. You don't want to jeopardize your career because your recording got lost in transit to the mixer's studio.