Mixdown

[RawknRoll]

I record at 24/96
What is going to be the best quality mixdown I can do
(File Type, Number etc.)

In theory at least

[Audioholic]

What are you mixing down to?

If Cd, you will want to dither, WAV, AIF, should all be the same, Keep a file where you don't convert to a lower sample rate on hand as well.

[Smithcok]

Yep, if you are going to CD, dither down to 44.1/16bit

Keep your files in an uncompressed format (WAV or AIFF are most popular)

[RawknRoll]

I'm sending it to a mastering house.

He accepts either wav or aiff .... so in order to get this straight you guys say i should

bounce the full track to 16/ 44.1 /wav when the mixdown screen pops up?

doesn't that lower the quality or no?

[Smithcok]

Oh, well if you are sending it out to get mastered, just send him the 96/24 files, and let him convert them down (as he will have better equipment)

I assumed you were bouncing them out yourself.

[RawknRoll]

Awesome,

1. I send it out 96/24 Wav file?
2. Does it matter what type of cdr I use? Any you guys would recommend?

[Audioholic]

Nope, just sent as a data CD, don't dither as Smithcock said, let them do any conversion, any reliable cd will work.

[RawknRoll]

data discs ... how do i make one ... if i use cdrs does it matter what kind... any background would be helpful..>!

[Smithcok]

Nope, just sent as a data CD, don't dither as Smithcock said, let them do any conversion, any reliable cd will work.

Yeah, sorry, I thought he was bouncing out his masters to burn on a CD himself. If you are sending them out, leave them in the original format.

Technically any CD-R will work, but the higher quality the better. Personally I use the gold ones from Apogee (http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/CDRDisk74A)

Just drag the files onto the blank disc icon and burn it (or use a burning program).

[Audioholic]

Yeah, sorry, I thought he was bouncing out his masters to burn on a CD himself. If you are sending them out, leave them in the original format.

Technically any CD-R will work, but the higher quality the better. Personally I use the gold ones from Apogee (http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/CDRDisk74A)

Just drag the files onto the blank disc icon and burn it (or use a burning program).


Yeah, I was agreeing with you about not dithering if he is sending to a mastering house. I thought at first he was going to cd himself too, but alas, more info is afoot.

[RawknRoll]

where do I get the files and how will that sound like the mix I created.

Sorry guys obviously i'm extremely new at the sending it to a mastering house thing.....

Thanks!

[RawknRoll]

where do i find the song.... and what do you mean by files to drag onto the disc... I ordered some of those apogee discs.

[Audioholic]

Well
if you recorded at 24/96 into your software of choice, just bounce down the songs at 24/96, wav or AIFF, onto your harddrive, so it will create a stereo interleaved file at this sample rate. Then once you do this for all your songs, you just need to burn a data disc, if you have software like toast, you would open it up , create a data cd and drag the files to it, insert your cdr, and hit record, walla.

have you not bounced down anything or burned a cd before?

[RawknRoll]

so after i bounce the track at the rate recorded and it goes to my desktop in wav format i should go to nero and click data disc and throw theone song on there

( I'm only sending him one song for mastering. )

Make sense? I don't need any adjustments... this is the best quality i can get???

[tech1]

Here's some tips on using Nero to burn data CD's: http://www.sweetwater.com/feature/csresources/pdfs/UsingNero.pdf

[Audioholic]

you see, you need to burn a data disc, because an audio cd is 16 bit, 44.1, and a higher rez won't work for a standard audio cd. so sending him the data file will keep it at a higher sample rate, the mastering engineer should be able to work with that, do his processing, and get it down to CD quality.

perhaps if you are not familiar with computers or the audio software, you can get someone who does to help you at your place???

[RawknRoll]

I get it now!!!

I bounce it to my desktop as wav file 24/96 and throw it on a data disc to keep the hi res and send it to him he'll dither it down for me cause he has better equipment and it will sound better??

Correct??

If that is correct

when i burn how do i tell if it burn correctly as a wav file.... what plays wav??

[Smithcok]

Probably the easiest way is just to pop it into another computer (or even the original computer) and make sure the files are on the CD.

I would also suggest making 2 copies to send to the mastering house.
Also ask the engineer if he/she wants vocal up/down mixes. Some mastering engineers I work with like to have them, just in case the mastering itself puts the vocal a little out of whack.

[nine99nine]

so after i bounce the track at the rate recorded and it goes to my desktop in wav format i should go to nero and click data disc and throw theone song on there

( I'm only sending him one song for mastering. )

Make sense? I don't need any adjustments... this is the best quality i can get???

the immediate answer is YES.

Being a mastering engineer, I would recommend calling your mastering engineer and asking questions like the ones you posed in the forum. You may think you will sound dumb asking those questions, but any ME is quite used to those questions. They can also tell you the exact specifications for what they accept as pre-master cds. As far as CD-R's go, the manufacturer doesn't matter as far as how the data being recorded. What does matter is the durability and reliability after an amount of time. Gold CD-Rs like someone mentioned before are great for archiving, but can come at quite a cost. For cost and durability/reliability, I would recommend Taiyo Yuden CD-R's. (Available from sweetwater or most online retailers) I have done a lot of CD-error checking the last year, and they always come up with great results.

[RawknRoll]

Awesome so this is exactly what i do :

1. Done mixing mix the song down to my desktop as a Wav 24/96 file
2. Then I turn on Nero and put it on my gold disc as a data file
3. I send it to the mastering engineer
4. It comes back rocking??