STEREO EXPORT CHECKLIST

November 7, 2018 Steve Knots

This article is about pre-mastering. That means exporting a stereo audio file that you will use for mastering, later, in another audio project. Not in your multi-track project.

Never try to do mastering in the same multi-track session where you produce your music.

Doing that is like trying to cut your own hair.... you think you did a good job, but you totally didn’t!

Now, these are some guidelines to help you along the way to making the best possible tracks you can.

It’s not going to teach you how to be a mastering engineer. That takes time.

In a hurry? Get the checklist here and read it later.

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Before we start: if you just want to drop Ozone on your session and export that way, fine. You won’t learn much audio engineering and this article is not for you. Go make music, your creative force field is more important than technical operations at this point.

WHAT IS A PRE-MASTER?

What does it mean to make a “pre-master” and why should I bother?

A pre-master is just a stereo audio file with lots of headroom and no master channel effects. It’s the raw material that a mastering engineer will turn into a finished track that sounds louder, wider, deeper, and more 3-dimensional than your mixdown.

After that it can be put on vinyl record, a cassette tape for duplication, a digital file to burn on CD, an MP3 for digital distribution, etc. There are different technical details of mastering for those formats, but we’re not going to get into that.

Making a premaster is basically called “don’t mess up your recordings!” In other words, you need to give the mastering engineer something they can work with, that’s not already squashed and smashed and messed-up from amateur compressor experiments.

HOW THIS WILL HELP YOU

There are some important ways it helps you, as a producer, to make pre-masters.

First, it will push you to make better mixes. That means deciding your mix is done BEFORE you start mastering, and forcing yourself to commit to mix decisions… not saying “I’ll fix it later.” Don’t simultaneously mix your channels while adjusting a Compressor + EQ on the master track. I know people talk about mixing into a compressor. When you know what you’re doing, that’s cool. But if you haven’t learned to control your rough mix yet, that won’t help you understand what you’re hearing.

Second, making pre-mastering will make the mastering process easier. This is because you’re not trying to surgically repair things that should have been fixed in the mixdown! Mix first, fix what needs to be fixed, and then focus on mastering in a totally new session.

You’ll appreciate the value of this when, one day, you need to master a group of tracks together. They should in the end sound like one group of tracks, not like strangers who came from all different sonic universes. You can’t compare multiple songs to each other, and to reference mixes, when you’re trying to do mastering inside your multi-track production session.

That would be like trying to get a haircut while riding your bike, or something. I don’t know. You get the idea so let’s get to the practical part.

Here's how to prepare your music for mastering.

Download this checklist from the link below, print it out, hang it on the back of your bathroom door, and memorize it until you can do it in your sleep.

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