Mastering Guide
How to Prepare a Mix for Mastering
A clear checklist for delivering a stereo mix to Dimension Mastering — headroom, file format, references, revisions and what to leave off the master bus.
Mastering starts with the mix you hand over. A well-prepared mix gives us the room to shape tone, glue the record, and push loudness without fighting the source. A squashed, clipped, or under-cooked mix ties one hand behind our back before we start.
This guide walks through exactly what we need to do our best work on your record.
Get the mix right first
Mastering is not a rescue service. If a vocal is buried, a snare is honky, or the low end is muddy, those things live inside the balance — not the master. A great master starts with a mix you're already happy with on your own monitors.
Before bouncing:
- Take a day off and re-listen fresh.
- Check on headphones, in the car, on a phone speaker.
- If something sounds wrong on every system, fix it in the mix — don't hope mastering will handle it.
Headroom on the master bus
The most common problem we see: mixes bounced right up against 0 dBFS with a limiter already crushing the transients.
- Print with your master bus peaking around -6 dBFS.
- No brickwall limiter on the master bus for the mastering print.
- If you use master bus processing (bus compression, tape emulation, subtle EQ) as part of your sound, leave it on — that's part of the mix. Just remove the final limiter.
- If you want to hear a loud reference version, print two files: one for mastering (no limiter) and one for your own listening (with limiter).
Master bus processing — keep or remove?
| Processing | Keep on | Remove for mastering |
|---|---|---|
| Bus compression that's part of your sound | ✓ | |
| Tape / console emulation | ✓ | |
| Subtle master EQ shaping | ✓ | |
| Reference-matching plugins | ✓ | |
| Brickwall limiter | ✓ | |
| Loudness-maximizer chains | ✓ | |
| Dither (we'll add our own) | ✓ |
File format and delivery
- Format: WAV or AIFF, interleaved stereo
- Bit depth: Send in your session default. 32-bit float or 24-bit are both fine — no need to convert down.
- Sample rate: Native session rate — never up- or down-sample before sending.
- No dither — we dither at the final stage.
- No fades at the very edges unless they're part of the arrangement. Leave any silence at the head and tail intact so we can decide the top and tail cleanly.
- Filename:
ARTIST_TITLE_MIX_v01.wav— version numbers help enormously across revisions.
References
Two or three reference tracks help us understand your target. Not to clone them — to calibrate ears and intent.
- Pick references in a similar genre and era to your record.
- Pick tracks you think sound great sonically, not just songs you like.
- Send them as commercial releases (Spotify links are fine, or high-quality files).
- A short note — "I love how open the top end is on this" or "the low end here is the target" — is more useful than the tracks alone.
Things to include with your files
- Final approved mixes, clearly labeled
- Reference tracks (or links)
- Any notes on what you want emphasized or protected
- Intended release format (streaming, vinyl, CD, cassette)
- Track order and any gap preferences
- Rough deadline
What we'll send back
- A stereo master per track, delivered at 24-bit / 44.1 kHz for streaming and CD by default
- Additional formats on request: 16-bit / 44.1 kHz for legacy CD, high-res 24-bit, MFiT/Apple Digital Masters, vinyl pre-master
- One round of tweaks included — send timestamped notes
Revision etiquette
We'd rather do fewer, better rounds than many rushed ones.
- Listen to the masters over at least a day, on multiple systems, at conversational volume.
- Consolidate all notes into one revision request, not five.
- Use timestamps and specific language: "0:42 — could the vocal sit 1 dB lower?" beats "vocals feel off."
Quick reference checklist
- Mix bounced with ~6 dB headroom
- No brickwall limiter on master bus
- Native sample rate, WAV or AIFF, no dither
- Filename clearly versioned
- References included
- Release format specified
- Track order and gaps noted
- Notes consolidated into one clear brief
Ready when you are
Send us your stems
Prepared your files with this guide? Get in touch and we'll take it from here.