First of all, if you have any questions after reading this page, get in touch.

Usually a mix will be ready in 3-7 days.

The song will be delivered mastered (included in the mixing price). My philosophy is that a mix should be “radio-ready”. I’ll deliver a mastered mix that’s ready to go for distribution.

There is no limit regarding the number of revisions, I’m a reasonable person and I want your music to sound as close to your vision as possible.

Files transfer

A safe service that allows to just drag & drop files up to 50 GB (and with one month auto-expiration) is SwissTransfer.com. Otherwise, any other cloud storage solution works.

Vocals

It’s important that the lead vocal track is dry. Except for EQ and compression/saturation, any time-based effects should be applied either on a separate track either by using sends.

Multi-tracks

The multi-tracks are all the individual tracks in the project, including the return tracks. When exporting multi-tracks, the returns should be exported separately, and not baked-in the source track.

Stems

The stems are sub-mixes of similar elements (drums, instruments, vocals, transition effects).

For a better final mix, the key elements should be exported and delivered separately. For example, the kick (and often clap/snare and/or high-hats) should be excluded from the drums stem. Bass and the lead instrument should be excluded from the instrumental stem.

The lead vocal should be excluded from vocal stem, and exported separately.

The stems exports made for mixing and mastering purposes are a blend of individual tracks (multi-tracks) and sub-mixes (stems).

Different DAW’s work differently when using the solo button - some may mute the send effects. My suggestion is to start by muting all the tracks in the project (except for sends). Then, for each stem unmute just the tracks you want contained in the respective stem, and run an export pass.

What I consider important to have as stems

Before moving forward, I can't stress this enough: reverbs and delays need a separate track. I will inevitably use compression, and this will have as a result increasing the level for the low-level audio. If a reverb is baked-in a track, its level will increase and your set reverb relationship will change and not in a good direction. If the reverb and delays are separate, I can pull down the excess and preserve the optimal relationship.

1 → Kick
2 → Clap or snare only if they are prominent, otherwise they can go with the drums stem
3 → Hi-Hats and high percussion like shakers, tambourines, rides
4 → Drums the rest of the drums, percussion, including crashes and fills
5 → Bass
6 → Lead instrument or lead stack
7 → Instruments stem the rest of the melodic elements
8 → Effects stem transitions, textures, background elements
9 → Instrumental return effects reverbs, delays, throws
10 → Lead vocal dry, no reverb or delay baked-in
11 → Background vocals dry, no reverb or delay baked-in
12 → Vocal return effects reverbs, delays, throws

Ideally, you should create the applicable groups mentioned above in your DAW. Then route all the corresponding tracks accordingly. This way, the entire export process becomes easier, since you only have to deal with muting/unmuting up to 12 groups.

As a general rule of thumb, the elements that are driving the song, need a separate stem. If you have a bass-focused song with an interplay of 2-3 bass lines, then they should be in separate stems. You get the idea.