Is your song really ready for a great mix?

For a successful collaboration with a mix engineer there are important guidelines to follow.

But first you should make sure your song is “mix ready”.

Have you tried as many production possibilities as possible for your song? Did you leave any stone unturned? Today’s DAW technology is an amazing asset for trying anything really easily and without any real danger aside from the danger of “wasting” a bit of time. In my experience a song will “talk back” to you when you try things out, “it” will let you know if they work or not, you need to keep listening for that.

Of course, you need to listen very intently to the recording quality of each and every track of your song. Once again, today’s DAWs and plugins can work miracles, but I would recommend spending time crafting great sounds “at the source” so you don’t ask too many miracles of your mix engineer.

An extremely important part of making sure your song is ready for mixing is to check the performance aspect. Are you really happy with all the performances on your song? Could those vocals be better? More intense? Have a better rhythm? Are all those guitars really in tune? Do they have a tone that is really close to what you imagine they will end up being in the finished song?

Remember too that performance trumps sonic perfection. Anybody in the production business will agree with that. If a performance gives you goosebumps, it does not really matter if it does not sound “perfect”, “clean”, “open” etc. On the other end you may have a “pristine” sound and get no reaction to the performance, something to avoid of course!

Producing songs is a very difficult art and pursuit, but in my opinion, a very worthy goal. You need to ask yourself hard questions when you are reaching the mixing stage. Most engineers love solving “problems” but you should strive to give them the least amount of “problems” to solve in your tracks so they can focus their energy on being creative and giving your song the best chance to bring out those goosebumps.

So, to really help your mix engineer focus on the creative side, you need to prepare your tracks/files for them so they have the least amount of questions about their intent in the arrangement.

Reference songs.

Another helpful element of being mix ready is having reference tracks (songs) that closely resemble your song. I know, I know, you are going to tell me that everything you write and play is 100% original. While I agree that originality is a must, most “modern” music production is always in part rooted in previously released material. There is nothing wrong in my opinion in trying to sound like someone else, as long as that someone else is compelling and that your “version” of their sound is compelling too. So, having reference songs for your mix engineer is very useful. I am talking both about “sonic” references as well as “vibe” references. Reference tracks should actually be used all along the production of the song to compare the sounds you are creating and make sure they are “in the ballpark” - (technical term) : )

Let’s move on to the boring but important phase: naming your tracks/audio files!

Labeling audio files/tracks properly is not an easy task but you should make every effort to name files with names that clearly describe their roles.

Here are some guidelines:

Start with the playing “style”.  If the whole track/file only plays in said “style”.

Example: Muted

Then use the name of the instrument. Example: Guitar

usually the track/audio file name length is limited so unless an instrument is not playing a specific part of a song but plays almost throughout you will be looking to shorten the instrument name. In our case Guitar can become GTR or A6 (Acoustic 6 Strings), E6 (Electric 6-strings) etc. The difficult part here is to find a short name that still makes some sense to someone else.

If the instrument plays in only a specific song section, then add that information.

Example: Verse (once again you may want to come up with shortened versions Vrs for Verse)

Last but not necessarily least, if relevant, add information about “effects” or main “characteristic” of the sound. Example: Flange or Filtered or Bright, etc.

Using the “_” (underscore) character as a separator is recommended

So, we could end up with a track/audio file name like this:

Muted_A6_Flange_Vrs

or

LEAD_Voc_Bridge

or

DIST_Hk_Snare (note: if there are more than one track of distorted snare on the “hooks” then start adding a number: DIST_Hk_Snare_1 & DIST_Hk_Snare_2)

Lastly, you may order these descriptive “blocks” any which way feels best to you:

Muted_A6_Flange_Vrs

can be: Vrs_Muted_A6_Flange

or: Flange_Muted_A6_Vrs

etc.

To finish, here are specification you should adhere to:

• Audio files should be saved in the Broadcast Wave File format (.wav)

• Their bit-depth should be 24 bits or better

• The Sampling frequency should be 96kHz (less is OK)

• Each audio file should be properly labeled (*see above*)

• Do not “bounce to disk” every track as a stereo file, only bounce a stereo file if the signal is really stereo. Most tracks should be mono.

Every audio file should be consolidated (or bounced to disk) starting from the same timeline position. I will import your audio files in my DAW and assume that they all “line up”. This is a crucial point and should be double checked before sending the multitrack files to avoid confusion and frustration

• Provide the song’s tempo and/or tempo map if the song contains tempo changes

• Include comments on tracks for which you have specific instructions (see Google Sheet link)

• Please gather all your files (a copy of your files, always keep the originals with you) into a single folder, then please “compress” (or zip) this folder into a single file.

Thanks for reading, please send me comments as I would like to refine my track preparation “checklist”.

©2019 Cyrille Taillandier – Mixed by T – www.mixedbyt.com