Every mastering session starts the same way: opening the file the client sent and deciding, in the first thirty seconds, whether we're going to spend the day mastering the record or rescuing it. Most of the difference between those two paths is decided long before the file lands in our inbox.
Here are the five things that, if you get them right, make everything else easier.
1. Format and sample rate
Send WAV or AIFF, 24-bit minimum, 44.1 kHz or higher. Never MP3, AAC, or anything else lossy — even if the source file happens to sound fine at 320 kbps, the artefacts are locked in and mastering will amplify them, not fix them.
If you're recording or mixing at 48/88.2/96 kHz, keep the master export at your project's native sample rate. Sample-rate conversion is a mastering-stage decision, not a mixdown one.
2. Leave real headroom
Aim for peaks around −6 dBFS on the master bus. Not −0.3, not −1, not "clipping the red light just once". If your track is peaking anywhere close to zero at the mixdown stage, the mastering engineer is boxed in from the start.
Headroom is not "unused loudness" — it's the room that lets a professional make surgical decisions. Take it away and you're paying a professional to do a rescue job.
3. No master bus limiter, please
We know it feels great to slap a limiter on and hear the finished loudness. It also destroys everything a mastering engineer can do for you.
Remove any limiter, maximizer, clipper, or aggressive bus compressor on your final output before exporting. A little glue compressor for cohesion is fine. A brickwall is not.
If you want to hear what "loud" sounds like while mixing, use a reference limiter on a monitor bus that doesn't get printed. Just don't render it.
4. Consolidate your stems from the same zero
If you're sending stems for stem mastering:
- Export every stem from the exact same start point (usually bar 1, beat 1).
- Label each one clearly:
01_Drums.wav,02_Bass.wav,03_Melodic.wav,04_Vocals.wav,05_FX.wav. - Include a rough 2-track mix as a reference for the intended balance.
- Ideally 4–8 stems. More than 12 and we're doing mixing, not mastering.
Misaligned stems is one of the most common reasons we have to email a client back before starting.
5. Send 1–3 reference tracks
Tell us how you want the master to feel. The fastest way is to share 1–3 professionally released tracks you'd love yours to sit alongside. Spotify links, SoundCloud, Beatport — anywhere is fine.
References aren't a mandate to copy. They're a way to translate taste into decisions. "I want it to hit like Track A but breathe like Track B" is a hundred times more actionable than "I want it loud but musical."
The pattern behind all five: do the small preparation that lets a professional do their real job. Mastering isn't a rescue service, and it isn't magic. It's a specialist making surgical decisions on top of a solid foundation. Sending clean, well-prepared files is how you get the best your engineer has in them.