The Pre-Mastering Checklist: Getting Your Mix Ready

There's an old saying from software development, "garbage in, garbage out" — and it applies just as directly to mastering. Not even the sharpest mastering AI or the most seasoned engineer can turn a sloppily mixed track into a polished, professional sound. Prep your mixdown properly, though, and you give the mastering stage a real foundation to work with.

Checklist Before You Export

Before your mixdown leaves the building, it's worth running through these points:

• ✓ Leave headroom: your track's peaks shouldn't cross −3 to −6 dBFS. Nothing on the master bus should be clipping!
• ✓ Keep the master bus clean: skip limiters or maximizers there — the limiter itself is the mastering engineer's (or AI's) job.
• ✓ Listen for clipping: check the mix in your DAW with the clip indicator switched on. Even brief peaks count!
• ✓ Sanity-check the frequencies: too much low end? Mids pushed too hard? No comb-filter EQ on the master? A reference track helps you judge this.
• ✓ Check the stereo image: no serious mono-compatibility issues. A phase meter tells you if the needle stays in the green.
• ✓ Remove DC offset: some older interfaces generate it by default. A high-pass filter at 5–10 Hz clears it right up.
• ✓ Export the right format: WAV at 24-bit or 32-bit float, 44.1 kHz or 48 kHz. MP3 has no business in a mastering export!
• ✓ Check your level: aim for an integrated LUFS reading somewhere around −18 to −12 LUFS — mastering dials in the final target from there.

The Master Bus Limiter Trap

Here's a classic beginner move: dropping a limiter on the master bus just to preview how loud the track "might" end up sounding. The catch is that if this version gets exported with the limiter still on, that limiting is now baked in permanently — and neither an engineer nor an AI can undo it during mastering.

A mix that's already been limited has almost no dynamic range left to work with. Mastering can push it louder still, but it can't restore dynamics that are already gone. Pull the limiter before your final export and let mastering handle that part of the job.

Which Export Format Actually Makes Sense?

For your mixdown: stick to WAV, 24-bit or 32-bit float, at 44.1 kHz or 48 kHz. These lossless formats hold on to every bit of frequency information your mix contains.

MP3 is off the table for a mastering export. It's a lossy format, and each re-encode introduces fresh artifacts. Send an MP3 into mastering and those artifacts get amplified right along with everything else in the finished master.