How to Prepare and Send Your Track for Mixing in a Studio

When sending a project to a studio for mixing, it’s extremely important to prepare it correctly: file formats, track organization, signal levels, demo versions, and more.
The mixing engineer should be able to easily understand your project without confusion or ambiguity.

In this article, we’ll go over the most common mistakes artists make when preparing projects for mixing—and how to avoid them.

All elements of your mix should be in their proper place and play back exactly as intended. A common mistake is exporting files incorrectly, so when loaded into a DAW they all start at once or some tracks are shifted relative to the mix.

To avoid this, export all tracks from the zero point to the end of the project. Silence should remain where nothing plays, and audio should be present where it’s supposed to.

A demo track is a rough mix of your project. It serves as a roadmap for the mixing engineer, showing your intended balance, stereo placement, and even effects you’d like to keep (telephone filter, long reverb, heavy vocal tuning, etc.).

The demo helps the engineer understand your artistic vision and also allows them to catch inconsistencies between the demo and the files you’ve provided.

Each track’s signal level should correspond to what you have in the demo. If levels are drastically different, the balance of the entire mix may shift—for example, something you intended as the lead element may get buried in the background.

A common mistake is sending all tracks normalized to 0 dB. This isn’t helpful—the engineer will just have to readjust them to match the demo balance.

The audio file format is very important for mixing. The standard minimum is WAV 44.1kHz/16-bit, but 48kHz/24-bit is preferred. Higher resolution is generally better—but only if that’s what you recorded in the first place. There’s no point in exporting a 44.1/16-bit recording at 192kHz/32-bit.

Also:

• If a source was recorded in mono (e.g. a single mic), keep it mono. Saving as stereo only increases file size without adding quality.
• Conversely, don’t downmix stereo tracks to mono, or you’ll lose the width.

The content of the tracks should be kept uniform, i.e. do not place completely different sounding instruments on the same track.

The processing of, for example, piano and violins will be very different, so they should be saved on different tracks.

References aren’t mandatory, but they’re very helpful. A good reference lets the engineer understand the general sound you’re aiming for.

You can send one overall reference or several with notes about what you like in each.

(For more details, see the article “What Are Reference Tracks and Why Do We Need Them?”).

It’s useful to include details such as:

• Key, tempo, and time signature
• Specific notes or requests
• Previous mixes (and what you didn’t like about them)

While not strictly necessary, this information can help the engineer work more efficiently and achieve results closer to your vision.

Now you know how to properly prepare and send your project for mixing and mastering in a studio.

Go through the checklist above before sending your files, and you’ll be confident that everything is organized correctly—and your mix engineer can focus on making your track sound its best.