Services / Stereo Mastering / File Prep
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PREP FOR
STEREO MASTERING.
Stereo mastering takes one file and treats it as a single signal. There is no stem rebalancing, no surgical fix per element — the chain operates on what you bounce. That means the bounce has to be honest: every choice in the mix gets amplified at the master stage, good or bad. Five minutes of prep here saves a revision round later.
01 / Why this matters
FIVE MINUTES NOW.
SAVES HOURS LATER.
I have lost count of how many sessions started with the client bouncing through a soft-clipped master bus or a still-engaged limiter. The result: the mastering chain compresses already-compressed audio, the transients flatten, and the master sounds smaller than the mix. The cleanest mix bounce always beats a 'pre-mastered' one.
02 / Pre-flight checklist
THE CHECKLIST.
Run through this before you hit bounce. Every item here is something I have seen go wrong on a real session.
- 01
Bounce your final mix as 24-bit WAV at 44.1 kHz or 48 kHz
- 02
Leave at least 6 dB of headroom on the master bus — peak no higher than -6 dBFS
- 03
Remove ALL processing from your master bus (limiter, clipper, master EQ) — no exceptions
- 04
Confirm no inter-sample peaks or clipping on individual channels
- 05
Include reference tracks (1–3 commercial songs that hit the energy / loudness / tone you want)
- 06
Optional: notes on what you love about your mix and what you want enhanced
03 / Common mistakes
DON'T DO
THESE.
The patterns that show up across every revision-heavy session.
Mistake 01
Bouncing with the master bus limiter still on
If you ran a limiter, clipper, or maximizer on the master bus while mixing, take it off before you bounce. Even at 'just 1 dB of gain reduction' the transients are already compressed. Print the bounce dry.
Mistake 02
Less than 6 dB of headroom
Peaks above –6 dBFS leave nowhere to work. I need room to glue, shape, and lift before the final limiter. Pull your master fader down until the loudest peak is well below –6 dBFS, then bounce.
Mistake 03
Bouncing at 16-bit / 44.1 kHz from a 24-bit session
Dither once, at the end. If your session is 24-bit, bounce 24-bit and let me handle the conversion at delivery. Bouncing 16-bit too early bakes dithering noise into the master input.
Mistake 04
MP3, AAC, or any lossy format
Always WAV or AIFF. Lossy encoding strips the high-frequency content the mastering chain depends on — once it is gone, no plugin gets it back.
Mistake 05
Missing reference tracks
Without references I am guessing at your aesthetic target. One commercial track that captures the loudness, tone, and width you want gets us 80% of the way there in 30 seconds.
04 / File format
THE SPEC.
- Format: WAV or AIFF (not MP3, FLAC, or OGG)
- Bit depth: 24-bit minimum (32-bit float is fine)
- Sample rate: 44.1 kHz or 48 kHz
- Channels: stereo interleaved (or stereo split if your DAW exports that way)
- Peak: no higher than –6 dBFS
- No fades on the master bounce — I will handle fades on the master
05 / Naming convention
NAME IT
LIKE A PRO.
Use this format: `ArtistName_TrackTitle_v01_24bit.wav`. The version number is critical — if you send a v2 bounce after I have started, I need to know which one is current.
06 / Reference tracks
SEND
REFERENCES.
Drop 1–3 commercial reference tracks in the intake form. Spotify links are fine. For each one, write one sentence on what specifically you want me to match: low end weight, vocal placement, top end air, stereo width, loudness. The more specific the cue, the closer the first master lands.
07 / Final check
BEFORE
YOU SEND.
Listen to the bounce on three systems: studio monitors, AirPods, and your phone speaker. If anything sounds wrong on any of them, it is a mix problem — fix it before sending. Mastering will not save a broken mix.
Ready to book
PREP DONE.
LET'S WORK.
Pre-flight clean? Bounce ready? Send it through and lock the brief on the onboarding call.
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