Mixing & Mastering

There is no need to send raw multitracks. Instead, we prefer you send us your stems with the processing active. That way, your creative choices are included and ensures your song remains the way you intend it to sound.

• Include as much or as little processing on your audio tracks as you feel is essential to the character of your song.
• Any creative effects that define your sound should remain printed in the audio files.
• Leave EQ active if it contributes to your intended tone. If it’s purely corrective or mix-stage EQ, feel free to bypass it.
• Bypass compression unless it’s shaping the sound in a meaningful way or holding the performance together.
• Reverb can be removed if you’d like us to apply analogue reverb we feel suits the mix. Keep it active if it’s already integral to your sound.
• Delay is part of your production identity. Leave it active when it’s creative, rhythmic, or used only in specific moments of the track.
• You can leave panning in place, but removing it gives us more flexibility. If you decide to bypass panning, please include your preferred stereo positions in your mix notes.
• All vocal tuning and editing must be completed before exporting. Ensure breaths, clicks and unwanted artefacts are cleaned up.
• Always include a rough mix as a reference. This helps us confirm playback accuracy and ensure all creative processing is represented correctly.

Audio mixing is the process of combining and adjusting multiple audio stems together to create a balanced and cohesive mix. Various individual audio elements such as vocals, instruments, drums, and ambient sounds are blended together in a way that they complement each other and create a pleasing sonic experience for the listener. The goal of mixing is to achieve clarity, depth, and balance within the audio, ensuring that each element can be heard clearly and that they interact harmoniously.

Audio mixing involves several important tasks:

• Level Balancing: Adjusting the volume levels of different audio elements to ensure that none of them overpower or get lost in the mix. This helps create a clear and even sound.
• Panning: Placing audio elements in the stereo field to create a sense of space and direction. Panning determines whether a sound appears to be coming from the left, right, center, or somewhere in between.
• Equalization (EQ): Using equalization to shape the frequency balance of each audio element. EQ is used to enhance or reduce specific frequencies to make elements sound clearer, warmer, or more distinct.
• Dynamics Processing: Applying tools like compression and limiting to control the dynamic range of audio elements. Compression helps balance the difference between loud and quiet parts, while limiting prevents audio from exceeding a certain loudness level.
• Effects: Adding various audio effects such as reverb, delay and others to create depth, ambiance, and texture within the mix.

The ultimate goal of audio mixing is to translate the artistic vision of the content creator into a polished and engaging audio experience for the audience. A skilled audio engineer will use their technical knowledge and creative instincts to shape the mix and bring out the best in each element, resulting in a final mix that sounds professional and emotionally impactful.

Mastering is the final professional polish that makes your mix truly release ready. It ensures your track sounds great everywhere, whether it’s streaming, playing in the car, or on a hi-fi system. We fine-tune the stereo image, balance the EQ and compression, add just the right amount of loudness without over compressing, and run your music through high end professional mastering equipment. In short, mastering is what makes your song sound its absolute best everywhere it’s heard.

Audio mastering involves several important tasks:

• EQ: Balancing frequencies to ensure a clear, cohesive sound across all playback systems.
• Dynamic Processing: Controlling the track’s dynamics for consistent volume and punch without losing natural feel.
• Stereo Enhancement: Adjusting the stereo image to create a wider and more immersive listening experience.
• Loudness Optimization: Increasing overall volume to industry standards while maintaining clarity and detail.
• Final Quality Check: Ensuring the mastered track translates perfectly on all platforms and playback devices.

By adding + Dolby Atmos Master to your order, you’ll receive a Dolby Atmos ADM master, a binaural mix, and surround re-renders. This means your music can be distributed on platforms like Apple Music, TIDAL, and Amazon Music as a fully 3D immersive experience. Dolby Atmos can be enjoyed using regular headphones, there is no need for a full Atmos speaker setup. The difference compared to stereo is simply mind-blowing.

Dolby Atmos Mastering involves several important tasks:

• Spatial Mixing: Creating a 3D audio landscape so each sound moves naturally in a three dimensional space.
• Binaural Rendering: Delivering a headphone friendly version that mimics the immersive Atmos experience without special equipment.
• Surround Re-renders: Providing multiple surround sound versions so your music is ready for any playback environment.
• Platform Optimisation: Ensuring your master is perfectly tuned for streaming services like Apple Music and TIDAL.

There are a few major benefits of releasing a Dolby Atmos master.

• Superior Sound when compared to a standard stereo master. A Dolby Atmos master can achieve a sound that has more space, depth and is overall more true to life and pleasing to the ear.
• More Royalties from streaming platforms. You will earn a better percentage of royalties from streaming platforms when release a Dolby Atmos master.
• Online Algorithms will favour songs that are released in Dolby Atmos as well as stereo, especially Apple Music that say that the preferred format is Dolby Atmos/Spatial Audio.
• Future Proofed with Dolby Atmos. Dolby Atmos is going to eventually replace stereo on all streaming platforms. By releasing your music now in Dolby Atmos ensures you are future proofed and ready for the inevitable switch.
• Better Chance Of Being Playlisted. By releasing a Dolby Atmos master you will have a far better chance of being playlisted on certain platforms. Being playlisted can make or break a release.

The initial mix (Mix 1) will be returned to you within the time frame selected when placing your order. Turnaround time is based on days the engineer works between Monday to Friday. If you have a specific day you need your mix or master back for, please let us know when placing your order.

• 1 Working Day (mix 1 returned next working day)
• 2-5 Working Days (mix 1 returned within 2-5 working days)
• 5-7 Working Days (mix 1 returned within 5-7 working days)

By adding + Additional Mixes to your order, you will receive back the mixes for any of the following additional file types in stereo.

• Instrumental
• Acapella (vocal bus only)
• Performance Mix (version with lead vocal removed)
• Radio Edit (additional stems must be supplied)
• Extended Edit (additional stems must be supplied)

By adding + Mixed Stems to your order, you will receive back all stems as they are mixed in the session. Mixed stems will included all mixed buses as well as any reverb and delay sends. Playback of the mixed stems will playback as the finished stereo mix does. Mixed stems can be used for remix purposes and further production.

Orders / payment must be made before work on your song begins. This ensures our engineers, take the necessary time and care required to return you the very best mix and master.

A stem should not be confused with a multitrack audio file. An audio stem refers to an individual isolated track or element that is part of a larger mix. Stems are created by splitting a full mix into its constituent parts, allowing for greater control over the individual elements during mixing. Stems are never sent RAW without processing and always include the plugin processing that is active on the channel.

All mixing packages include 3 revisions. Mix revisions give you the peace of mind that the end result is going to be exactly as you want it. On the rare occasion you exceed 3 revisions, you can always purchase more via the revisions and re-runs page.

100% yes, this is essential when working with an online mix engineer. The rough mix or demo mix will be used to establish that the stems you have sent playback correctly as well as include all automation and necessary processing. The rough mix is also used to correctly establish the balance you intend for each stem to be in the mix. By listening to the rough mix we can establish at what volume you intend a certain sound to be and where you intend it to be positioned in the mix.

There is technically no difference. Apple Spatial is what Apple call it and Dolby Atmos is what everyone else calls it. Apple spatial is played back through Apple’s own codec. All other streaming platforms playback using the Dolby Atmos codec.

The Dolby Atmos ADM and stereo master can be given to your desired distributor to release on platforms such as Apple Music, Tidal and Amazon Music. The Dolby Atmos and stereo masters sit alongside each other and depending on which format the listener has their device set to will determine which version they will hear. It is highly important that the Dolby Atmos and stereo versions perfectly sync with each other. If they do not sync perfectly your masters will be rejected.

Yes, if you are distributing Dolby Atmos you will also need to distribute a stereo master. The two files play alongside each other and need to play in sync with each other too. The reason for this is that on streaming platforms you will be able to switch between the two formats on the fly and by doing so switches from stereo to Dolby Atmos instantly. If in sync your files simply switch from one to the other seamlessly.

Get in contact with us via email and we can simply replace the files. Please be sure to get in contact with us ASAP to ensure we have the correct files to mix before work commences. If work has already started on your mix and the entire mix requires new stems, charges will apply.

A good mix engineer will be able to work with all genres of music not just one. At Audio Animals we pride ourselves on the fact that we work with all genres of music from every corner of the globe. Being an online mixing and mastering studio working worldwide there is not a genre of music we have not worked with.

Stereo mixes are returned in the following formats, if you require any others, please let us know: 

• 96kHz 24bit wav

Stereo masters are returned in the following formats, if you require any others, please let us know: 

• 96kHz 24bit wav
• 48kHz 24bit wav
• 44.kHz 24bit wav
• 44.1kHz 16bit wav
• 320kbs 16bit mp3

Dolby Atmos masters are returned in the following formats:

• 48kHz 24bit ADM
• 96kHz 24bit ADM
• 96kHz 24bit binaural mix
• 96kHz 24bit re-renders
• 768kbs mp4

Yes, please leave all plugins active if they are essential to your production. A good rule of thumb is to ask yourself: if I bypass this plugin, does it remove part of the sound I am trying to achieve? If the answer is yes, leave it on. Any creative processing that is central to your song should remain active.

It is entirely up to you. As we will be applying panning during the mix, you can leave everything centred. Generally, it is better for us to handle the panning ourselves. However, if there are specific sounds you want placed in certain positions within the stereo field, please send a list of those stems along with details of where you would like them positioned.

Yes, any automation added for a specific reason should remain active, as it is part of the sound you are trying to achieve.

Reverb will be added as part of the mixing process. The only time I would recommend leaving it active is if you have applied a specific reverb exactly as you want it, or if it plays an important creative role in the sound of the track. Additionally we will be using analogue reverbs that sound incredible.

100% yes. Delay is something that can have a million different outcomes. If you have added delay that is specific to your taste and how you want delay to sound, this delay would be considered as part of your production. To remove this delay would be to remove an essential part of your sound. We always recommend leaving delay active if you want it in your track. We will not add delay as standard as this is a creative effect that is specific to the production and not necessarily the mix. If delay is required from a mix perspective we will by all means add it how we see fit to get the best results.

By adding + Vocal Production / Editing to your order, you can send your RAW vocal recordings exactly as they are. We will clean every take removing pops, clicks, breaths, and any unwanted noise. Then the creative work begins. Your vocals are shaped, enhanced, and produced with tailored processing and effects, ensuring they are ready for mixing.

No, all vocal tuning should be completed prior to mixing. If you need vocal tuning, please contact us to discuss pricing for this as an additional service. It is important that your vocals are fully comped, finished, and prepared for mixing in advance.