CHAPTER 3Preparing a Mix for Professional Mastering

Okay, so the mixes are finished and seem ready for mastering. There may be a few things you can do to make sure that they reach their full potential. In this chapter you will find out about some of the preparation professionals do to get the best out of the mastering process.

Maximum Peaks at –3 dB

Providing mixes for mastering that peak at a maximum of –3 dBFS (decibels relative to full scale) has become somewhat of a standard practice. To accomplish this, the mixing engineer can adjust their master fader during mixing until the highest peak shows on a digital peak meter at –3 dBFS. For the most part, this is a preventative measure. It provides a comfortable margin to ensure that there is no ...

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