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Mixing & Mastering Services

Recording Mixing

A modern music project requires a number of mixing offerings including Multi-track Stem Mixes, Reference Mixes, Final Mixes, and Master Mixes for Streaming and Music Video underscores.
 

The final product is a collection of Stem mixes sourced from the stages above.

An essential component of a successful engagement
is the understanding of the "Mixing Process"

Project Mix Types

Creating your musical work is the Mixing stage of production. This is the “Magical” part of taking the Raw Performances and rendering a stereo work of art and science with all the “Bells and Whistles” that modern technology provides.
 

There are a number of “Mix Types” that the Cave Studio provides for a piece of modern collaborative music and video production
:

  • Raw Stem Mixes – The Cave Studio’s master recording template can capture a raw track performance with as many as 14 Mic’d track and 10 Direct tracks and 24 DAW recorded tracks simultaneously.
    A Raw Stem Mix creates the perfect performance stereo track from one or more of those performance tracks and archives the source tracks for a later mix if required.
     

  • Reference Mixes – Reference Mixes are created from instrumental sections that are populated with Raw Stem Mixes.
    There are three default instrumental sections within the template: Rhythm, Melody, and Solo. These sections are often supplemented with composition-specific sections that support the song structure.
     

  • Final Mixes – Final Mixes are created using the Mixing Template. This template assigns Instrumentation Tracks to Stem Mixes and sometimes Reference Mixes.
    All the “Bells & Whistles” from outboard equipment and plugins come into play in the Final Mix stage. There can be multiple “Final Mixes” to support streaming and video requirements.
     

  • Master Mixes – Master Mixing is a process of taking a Final Mix and processing it for public consumption. Master mixes ensure that the listener hears the creative work as intended by the project producer

Mixing and Mastering Information

More About Master Mixes

Your song will not be complete until the mix has been “Mastered.” Mastering is an art in itself as it requires more technical knowledge and experience with physical acoustics and psychoacoustics than the mix stage.

 

Mastering also produces a composition mix that the Internet Streaming Services will receive favorably from you
.

  • Various Streaming Services: Mastering ensures that the musical works “Loudness Units @ Full Scale”, LUFS, meet the streaming service requirements.
    If it does not meet their specification the service will compress your work and change the dynamic range of your musical piece
     

  • Radio Edited Shorted Versions: Sometimes a composition runs longer than some audience you might be trying to reach is used to hearing.
    Providing two versions, a long and a short mix will provide better acceptance of your work
     

  • Commercials: Standard commercial underscore generally require time-stretched edits of 29 & 59 seconds and 6 to 8 second segues known as “Bumpers”
     

  • Film and Television Underscore: As with Commercials, film and television underscores require exact time edits from a Master Mix
     

  • Music Videos: Generally, a special Master Mix is created to support a Music Video based on the storyboard of the visualized music video. This can be lengthened or shortened sections, intros, and outros

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