Prepare for Mastering

Digital
There are many variables to working digitally. These are suggestions not necessarily rules that can be very helpful in getting the best transfer of your mixes. CD audio is an accepted format for supplying tracks. Most audio workstations now are 24 bit. If you can work at 24 bit I suggest to do so. The noise floor is noticeably better than 16bit. This has a cumulative effect when recording and mixing. When working at a higher resolution (like 24bit) save your mixes as data files instead of audio files so you do don't truncate and loose the last 8 bits.

Leave headroom. It's not necessary to make your mixes loud and can often do damage to your music by adding distortion and smearing the stereo image. It's best not to do any extra processing prior to the mastering eq just so it's louder. If you want to use aggressive limiting on your mix I suggest making 2 passes, one with and one without so we have a choice and compare in the proper environment.

Metadata
Metadata is everything about the music on your CD except the music. One part of this is ISRC codes (International Standard Recording Code), which is a unique code for each individual track. Most record labels are set up for these and supply them. They are not mandatory but are helpful in tracking radio play, licensing for films/commercials and are helpful in royalty collections. If you want to apply for these go to: https://usisrc.org.

CD Text is an extension of the Red Book CD specification standard. It allows for storage of additional information (e.g. album name, song name, and artist) on a standard-compliant Audio-CDs. Many CD players can now read much of this information. Please let us know if you want any of these services when booking your session.