As a home recording musician, you’ve poured your heart into your tracks. Now it’s time to polish them up before sending them to a mix engineer. Good editing can be the difference between a smooth mixing session and a frustrating mess. Here’s how you can make your mix engineer’s life easier—and ultimately get the best results for your music.
Recording at High Quality: Setting the Stage for a Great Mix
Great mixes start with great recordings. When possible, record at 48 kHz and 24-bit. This standard ensures excellent sound quality without creating files that are excessively large. If you want to push for even higher fidelity, 96 kHz is fantastic—but keep in mind it generates much bigger files, which can slow down editing and mixing processes.
Another crucial element is your gain staging. Make sure your levels are neither too high nor too low. Avoid clipping your waveforms—those nasty red peaks mean your signal is distorting, and no amount of mixing can truly fix that. On the flip side, don’t record so quietly that your tracks are overwhelmed by noise. Aim for a level that stays between -18 dBFS* and -12 dBFS* on your meters during recording. This provides a healthy signal while leaving room for any peaks.
Recording at high quality with proper gain ensures your mix engineer has the best material to work with—and your final mix will shine as a result.
Removing Unwanted Noise: Cleaning Up Background Sounds
Every recording has its quirks—maybe a little hum from your amp, a random pop from a mic, or even your neighbor’s dog in the background. Before your mix engineer dives in, take some time to clean these up.
Use tools like spectral repair or noise gates to tackle these issues. Most DAWs (Digital Audio Workstations) come equipped with noise removal plugins, so dig into those. A clean track is like a clean slate—your mixer will thank you!
Comping the Perfect Take: Combining the Best of Each Performance
We’ve all been there: five takes later, you’ve nailed the chorus but flubbed the verses. Don’t just send all five takes to your mixer and hope for the best. Instead, create a composite track—“comp” for short—by splicing together the best parts of each take.
Keep the transitions seamless, and make sure the tone and timing are consistent. A well-comped track shows your mix engineer that you care about the details.
Trimming Silence and Editing Starts/Ends
Tracks often start with a little dead air or end with an awkward cough. Clean those up! Trim unnecessary silence and add fades to the start and end of each track. This prevents clicks or abrupt noises when tracks start or stop.
Small edits like these ensure a professional feel and save the mix engineer from dealing with a cluttered session.
Naming Tracks Clearly: Avoiding Confusion for the Mix Engineer
Here’s the golden rule: Name your tracks so your mixer knows exactly what’s what. Use abbreviations like “VOX” for vocals, “GTR” for guitars, and “BASS” for—you guessed it—bass. Avoid vague labels like “Jeff” (Who’s Jeff?) or “Track 03” (Why does this exist?).
And here’s a pro tip: Don’t include the song name in the track title—that’s what folders are for. “MyAwesomeSong_FinalVox” just adds clutter. Stick to something simple like “VOX_Main” or “GTR_Lead.” Your mix engineer will love you for it.
Preparing Tracks for the Mixer: Consolidating and Exporting
Before you hit “Send,” make sure your tracks are consolidated. That means every track starts at the same point in the timeline—whether or not there’s audio right away.
When it comes to effects, give your mix engineer options. If you love the reverb or delay you’ve added, bounce a version with the effects intact and provide a clean version without them. This way, the mixer can see where you’re going creatively and decide whether to replicate your effects for better control or stick with what you’ve provided.
Export your files as WAV or AIFF (no MP3s, please!) and label them clearly. Zip them into a folder, and don’t forget to include a text file with notes about the project. A little organization goes a long way!
Wrapping It Up
Editing your tracks with precision isn’t just about making the mix engineer’s job easier—it’s about respecting your music. The cleaner and more organized your tracks are, the better your final mix will sound.
So, get in there, tidy up, and send those tracks off with confidence. Your music deserves it—and so does your mix engineer!
What’s your favorite editing tip? Share it below—we’d love to hear from you!
*Footnote: What is dBFS?
dBFS stands for decibels relative to full scale. It’s a unit of measurement used in digital audio to represent the level of a signal relative to the maximum possible level (0 dBFS). Levels above 0 dBFS cause clipping and distortion because they exceed the system’s capacity to accurately capture the sound.
For recording, staying between -18 dBFS and -12 dBFS allows for a healthy signal with enough headroom to prevent clipping during louder moments. This range also minimizes background noise, ensuring a clean and dynamic recording.