Jos Smolders - Twentestraat 68

You probably spent a lot of time recording, mixing, more recording, more mixing, adding effects and finally doing the end mix. Now what?

What is the best way to deliver your tracks?

Sound level

First of all: don’t mix to the max.
Keep your average sound level at – 6 dB’s. Don’t worry about an occasional flare, I’ll cover that.
If that mix sounds a bit wimpy compared to your idol’s tracks, don’t worry: as long you are satisfied with the sonic balance when you play at a loud enough volume it’s okay.

Format

Anything is good, as long as it is NOT compressed. So, no mp3 and no aac. If you mixed your tracks in your DAW at 16bit then render the final mix to a 16bit file. Did you mix at 24bit then a 24bit file, etcetera. As for sample rate: minimal 44khz, maximal 96khz. So, these are the formats:

• 16 bit / 44.1 khz
• 24 bit / 48 khz
• 24 bit / 96 khz

When your music has background noise

Sometimes you have recorded something beautiful and you can’t rerecord it. But there’s background noise in it, or some sort of hum that you want to have removed. In that case, send me that original recording, preferably with a few seconds without the music, where you only hear the background. In most cases I can remove that from the music.

Other information

I really like to read more about your creative goals. What is it that you want to achieve? What do you think the tracks are lacking? Also: what is your reference track? Perhaps you have a big example and that’s the sound you want to come through. So, next to the tracks themselves I appreciate extra info. Usually we also have email contact when I have a few questions of my own.