Giving clients their mixed songs

[cloy26]

How do you guys do it? A hard copy? Over the internet? WAVs? MP3s?

I am not trying to start a dithering argument or anything stupid, but I mixed a few songs and checked 'em yesterday in my car. I rendered them as mp3s and the quality was awful. Sounded like a myspace rip. lol.

Any suggestions? Hard copy with wavs?

 

[Fredrik-Ablaze]

Always WAV format, online via FTP or on a CD.

 

[cloy26]

Thanks for the quick response.

I know they are going to want them on myspace so, should I just render them as mp3s as well?

 

[Charles J]

I always take it upon myself to give the band WAVS AND MP3's that I encode myself at 320kpbs w/the highest quality setting w/the LAME encoder just so I know the MP3's don't sound like total ass.

Otherwise, I'd hear my work on iTunes or something, and it'd be like a 96 or 128 kpbs MP3 (If I'm lucky!). LOL.

I'll also export an ISO type file for duplication... actually I do this first to get all my fades right and everything flowing and sequenced, then export WAVS and MP3's from this..

 

[aortizjr]

MP3's for previews and mix revisions.

CD's or WAV's for finals. Since I do "mastering" too, slow burned CD's with CD-Text, ISRC's, and printed Information for the duplicator.

Then I also do 256Kbps MP3's and 128Kbps MP3's loaded with all the info. Using LAME I can make sure it doesn't sound craptastic.

Lately I have been giving them WAV's on a CD (not audio CD) for digital distribution sites that want waves and do their own encoding. But most just take the WAV's off my site, high-speed internet is pretty common these days.

 

[AllanD]

I usually have a "listening party" at my house. They come over, listen, and if they like, I burn a WAV cd.

 

[Suicide_As_Alibi]

If they want it online, FLAC and MP3 (with a link to the FLAC homepage). FLAC files are lossless, pretty small, and you can decode them back in WAVs which are (in theory) identical to the originals. The FLAC encoder/decoder and a song is still way smaller than the WAV, but the quality is a mile better than MP3.

Steve

 

[Lasse Lammert]

I don't really understand the question.....
if you're doing the mastering you hand them the master incl PQ sheet etc...
if someone else is doing the mastering you just give them/that guy the mixes on a data cd/dvd.

 

[cloy26]

I'm not sending it out to get mastered. I'm doing a local band who wants just rough demos.

 

[colonel kurtz]

i would never give someone a mix i did in anything but .wav format

even if it's just demos, fuck giving out a final product in mp3 or any other compressed/lossy format

 

[jval]

i 'fake master' i.e. clip it a bunch so the level is hot for them (but not crazy hot). export at 44.1/16bit. convert to mp3 at 256 with iTunes. send. sounds fine.

 

[xmortumx]

So what I do is if im showing them previews of the Demo or what ever.. i pretty much Master the tracks then export at 44.1/16bit wavs then i just use iTunes and export to mp3.. Put em up on Dropbox so they can hear em.

Now once they have checked out the songs.. and its all done... I give um the audio cd with all the wav files.. with cd text and all that

 

[cloy26]

dumb question, how do you put the cd text on there?

 

[xmortumx]

Well I use this program to burn my final mixes
http://cdburnerxp.se/

When u make ur cd.. it gives u the option to add cd text... which it then prints it to tracks after burning.

 

[professorlamp]

I'd just give them a CD with WAV's and MP3's. But surely the can compress it to mp3?

 

[cloy26]

sick. Thanks man. Now, will it be able to play in all cd players?

 

[plague_rider]

I normally bounce to .WAV then burn to CD

then if they want I'll provide MP3s or whatever format they want but i'll use a decent quality bit rate

 

[Josh Burgess]

I always take it upon myself to give the band WAVS AND MP3's that I encode myself at 320kpbs w/the highest quality setting w/the LAME encoder just so I know the MP3's don't sound like total ass.

Otherwise, I'd hear my work on iTunes or something, and it'd be like a 96 or 128 kpbs MP3 (If I'm lucky!). LOL.

I'll also export an ISO type file for duplication... actually I do this first to get all my fades right and everything flowing and sequenced, then export WAVS and MP3's from this..

+1

Always use 320kbps highest quality for mp3 rendering. They won't sound terrible like on myspace player (which is only like 96kbps or 128kbps.... way lower quality)

 

[Suicide_As_Alibi]

sick. Thanks man. Now, will it be able to play in all cd players?

CD-Text is a total waste of time, hardly any CD players use it and almost all software ignores it by default. It's still part of the RedBook standard, so it should still work in everything - but only 6 people in the world will be able to read it

Seriously, does no one else use FLAC on here? A FLAC file isn't much bigger than a 320Kbps MP3, but it's lossless. No loss in quality. No high-low passing. Can be decoded back into WAVs. Hello?

You can do what you want before you upload songs the MySpace, they'll still get butchered when they're re-encoded.

Steve

 

[waltz mastering]

For mastering, I always send back 16/44.1 waves through my ftp or sendspace.com

On request, in addition I will send back mp3's as well, but nothing ever under 192 kbps.