Getting best results from mixing to mastering!!

doclegion

Contagious Destruction
Dec 31, 2006
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:kickass: I was looking to get our CD mastered and wanting to get it to sound good as possible so i figured i would post a question about how i aproach the mixdown. I know about leaving the mainouts alone but do i or should i add any compression or EQing to the individual tracks or just leave them alone as well? My mix is good i just dont want waste time and money going back over it again and again ya know? I never had any work mastered before Thanks
 
Well, I think mastering is in the end about making the mix even better, so the mastering engineer has to think what´s good for the song. If the mix sounds nice, a pro mastering engineer should know how to deal with it. But... Ofcourse the individual tracks should be compressed even a little, as long as it sounds good, and you´re not just compressing because you have to, not knowing what you´re doing.

I´m starting to repeat myself here :D Do you have any clips to post, so people could analyze them a bit?
 
Im not good a posting clips. Something dosent ever work right and nobody listens to it.
 
Just do what you would normally do, but don't slam the crap out of the master bus. Let the track breathe a bit and the mastering engineer will have more room to work. Make sure to specify to him exactly what sort of sound you are after.