How to prepare your track for mixing and mastering.

Good prep doesn't make your music better on its own — but it lets me focus on actually making it sound great instead of untangling someone's session at 2am. Seven steps. Most of them take ten minutes. All of them matter.

I've worked on hundreds of tracks, and 90% of the issues I end up fixing have nothing to do with mixing — they start here, before you send me anything.

Step 00Bounce a reference mix first#

Before you change anything — bounce a full mix right now, everything on. Plugins, master bus, all of it. That's your before. I'll use it to understand where you were headed.

Every hour I spend fixing your session is an hour I'm not improving your sound. Good prep is how you get the most out of the time you're paying for.

Step 01Performance first. Everything else second.#

Before anything technical — is the take actually good?

I can tune vocals. I can tighten timing. I can do a lot of things. But I can't mix emotion into a lifeless performance. Autotune makes a great take shine. It does not resurrect a take that had no pulse to begin with.

If the vocal doesn't feel right on its own, no chain will fix that. I can make it cleaner, louder, wider — but not more real.

Same goes for arrangement. If the chorus feels underwhelming, that's a production call — not a mixing one. Fix it now, before we get into the weeds.

Listen through with fresh ears and ask yourself: does this actually slap, or am I just used to it?

Step 02Clean up the project#

Go through your session and delete everything that isn't supposed to be there.

I've had sessions where half the tracks were unusable — wrong exports, accidental mutes, clipped stems. At that point, we're not mixing anymore. We're rebuilding the song.

Muted takes you forgot about. That vocal line you tried three different ways and never chose. The synth layer that "might be useful later" (it won't be). The MIDI controller you accidentally armed.

What I need: a clean session where every track is intentional. No mystery audio, no leftover experiments. If a track has nothing to do with the final version of the song — delete it. If you're not sure — delete it. You can always fish it out of your backup.

Step 03Label everything like a reasonable person#

Name your tracks clearly: Kick, Snare, Hihat, Bass, Lead Vox, Backing Vox 1, Backing Vox 2, etc. Color-code and group by folders if your DAW supports it — that's for your convenience, not mine. Colors don't transfer when you send stems. But if your session looks like a crime scene, organize it however helps you navigate.

Step 04Plugins — what stays, what goes#

Creative plugins → keep them. That specific reverb on the guitar that's basically part of the sound? The saturation that defines the bass tone? Leave it. That's part of your vision, and I'll work with it.

Utility plugins → remove them. Any EQ, compressor, or limiter you threw on a track just to "fix" something or control levels — bypass it. I'll handle that. Having two layers of compression stacked (yours + mine) usually makes things worse, not better.

My job is to make decisions from scratch, not fight decisions that were already made.

Step 05Export settings#

When preparing stems for mixing, the settings below are what separates a clean handoff from a session I have to diagnose before I can even start.

• Format: WAV, 24-bit minimum. 32-bit float if your DAW supports it — never MP3.
• Sample rate: match your project. 44.1kHz is fine. 48kHz is fine. Don't convert.
• Headroom: aim for peaks around -6dB. Leave room. A signal barely touching 0dB has nowhere to go. Headroom isn't about numbers — it's about leaving space to actually shape the sound.
• Clipping: avoid it. It's technically fixable to a degree — there are tools for it — but it's always better not to arrive there. Think of it like a scratch on a guitar body. Not catastrophic, but why.
• Length: all files should start at bar 1, beat 1 and be the same length. Everything lines up when I import.

Step 06Self-check — the empty project test#

Before you send anything: open a brand new project, import all your exported files, and press play.

Does everything sound like your song? Are all the elements there? Does anything clip immediately on playback?

Five minutes. Catches 999% of export mistakes — missing tracks, wrong sample rates, a stem that exported silence because the channel was muted.

Do this. Every time.

ChecklistBefore you send#

If you check all of these, you're already ahead of most people I work with. Then hit send.

Good prep is how you show up ready. Everything after that is on me. Send it over.