SENDING FILES TO SIGNALCELL FOR MIXING

Please read the important info below…

(Apologies if you are a technical ninja and know all this already but many songwriters/musicians do not and appreciate the guidance.)

WeTransfer, DropBox or GoogleDrive please!

There are dozens of YouTube videos to show you technically how to export your tracks for mixing from your particular DAW, be that Logic or Pro Tools or Reaper or Cubase etc.

Here are my helpful hints that apply to all of them:  

1. WHAT QUALITY/FORMAT SHOULD I SEND MY FILES?

All files should be WAV

Use the same quality/format you recorded them at - no more, no less. So if you are recording at 48k/24-bit send me those files - please don’t do any conversion or dithering or anything like that.

2. MONO OR STEREO?

This is an important one.

Please ensure mono tracks (e.g. lead vocals, bass, etc) are exported in mono and stereo tracks (e.g. drum overheads, keyboards, etc) are exported in stereo.

3. WHAT ABOUT EFFECTS?

The basic rule of thumb is please export your tracks with NO EFFECTS AT ALL.

No EQ, no compression, no autotune and definitely no delay or reverb as the inclusion of those two FX will seriously compromise my ability to mix your track successfully. The only exception to this is if you have created some heavily-processed special effect like a distorted ‘telephone’ voice - in which case that’s fine, just export it as is.

4. RELATIVE PLACEMENT OF TRACK START POINTS?

I need all your tracks individually exported with their start points at BAR 1

Even if the only sound on the track is a Crash Cymbal at BAR 357 end I need the entire ‘block’ from the beginning otherwise I have no way of lining up all the individual elements, other than by ear which will take hours of extra time and never be 100% accurate.

5. NAMING YOUR TRACKS

The more time you spend doing this the quicker the whole process goes - please name tracks with as much detail as possible, e.g. ‘Chorus Vocal Take 2’ instead of ‘Untitled Audio 2.1’

6. ELECTONIC DRUMS & LOOPS ETC

This is something to decide on a case-by-case basis. If it’s a heavily-processed loop then probably you’d better send me the loop itself, as there won’t be much I can do with it anyway. If you’ve compiled your own loops from drum samples etc then by all means send me the individual components as it’s generally easier for me to mix if I have separate elements (e.g. kick, snare, hi-hat etc) . If you’ve the option to send me both, then do that.