Preparing for Mixdown

Making sure your music is in the best possible shape before it gets sent off for mixing is one of the most important parts of the mixdown process, here are some steps to help you prepare your track for mixing:

Organisation: Make sure all your tracks are organised and labeled correctly. This makes it easier to set up and navigate the project session

Editing: Edit your tracks to make sure they are tight and free of any unwanted noise or mistakes, this can include trimming silence, removing pops and clicks, and tuning vocals.

Volume: Set the volume of each track so they all sit comfortably together. Avoid making any track too loud or too soft, as this can cause problems during the mixing stage. Please include your own mix version so we can better understand your creative intent.

Stems: If you are including stems, or submixes. make sure you are 100% happy with them as any potential issues can not be undone in the mixing stage, and attempting to remedy can become a time consuming process

Effects: Best practice would be to remove any unnecessary effects or plugins from your tracks. Keep things simple and avoid adding too much reverb, delay, or other effects that can muddy the mix. If the effects are a sound design choice and an integral part of the music, consider duplicating the track and having a dry (no effects) and a wet (only effects) version.

Export: When you are ready to send your tracks, make sure to export them at the highest possible quality or at the same quality of any samples or recordings made.. Use a lossless format like WAV or AIFF.  DNAPS recommends 48Khz and 24bit.

By following these steps, you can ensure that your tracks are ready for mixing and that you will get the best possible & timely results from the mixdown process.