Sending Files for Mix

(There are many ways to do this, so other engineers may have different preferences. But if you’re sending files to Rob, this is how he prefers to receive them.)

If in Pro Tools: skip to the Pro Tools section, in any other program export tracks as described below.

Please export tracks as 24 bit .wav files at whatever sample rate you recorded/worked at.

The following speeds up my loading of the song and allows me to focus on mixing sooner rather than sorting through and renaming files:

  • Make sure files are clearly named: “DeepKick” is great, “kick1” is good, “drums- kick1” is ok, “audio37” is bad

  • If possible place files in folders for subgroups. Ideal for my mix setup is drums+FX, bass, guitars, keys/synth/string/other instruments, vocals.

  • Bonus points if the mono tracks come as mono, and the stereo as stereo. If you’re unsure the difference, err on the side of all stereo tracks.

Once the tracks are properly labeled/organized, please place them in a folder named with the song title and tempo. Then compress this folder to a .zip folder and upload.

Dry vs. Wet

This gets a little tricky. Essentially the less processing on a sound, the cleaner and more tweak-able on my end. So in this sense, it’s ideal that tracks be free of all processing, levels and pans set to unity, no EQ, compression, reverb etc.

BUT: In this digital age, there are certain processes that are likely essential and should be left on. Some common examples would be vocal tuning, amp simulators, moving filters, sounds that are more than 50% reverb or delay, or other heavily modulated sounds.

SO: Because of this I leave it up to you.

  • With a band recorded in a studio, it’s most likely best to send fully dry stems.

  • For an EDM artist where you’re really tied to your processing, you may decide almost everything is essential and remove very little processing. When in doubt on certain tracks, feel free to send a dry and a wet version, and let me decide which is more useful.

Pro Tools:

To clean the session before sending: Please do a save as, and save with a name like “export” appended so you don’t mess up your original files.

  • Please remove any master faders, or mix busses.

  • Next remove any unused tracks or playlists, ideally only leaving the final tracks for mix, and their main playlist.

    • (You may choose to leave or clear the plugins. I will likely clear them to start, but if there’s something you suspect I have and would prefer to send with, that’s ok too.)

  • Click on the drop down in the audio files bin, and choose select, then unused. After selecting unused, select clear and then click remove, make sure not to click delete as that will permanently erase your files.

  • Your session should be pretty clean now, so go ahead and choose File, Save Copy In. When the prompt comes up make sure to choose latest pro tools format, 24 bit, and whatever sample rate the session was previously at. Make sure to select “audio files” under items to copy and then save to a new location. This should make a clean condensed version that is smaller/easier to upload, and included no unwanted extras.

  • Compress the folder into a .zip file and upload.