How To Send Perfect Files (So You Don’t Annoy Your Producers and Engineers)

In this video, Austin shows you how to organize your session and export the correct stems, multi-tracks, and other files to send to future producers, collaborators, mixing engineers, etc.
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Timestamps:
Intro 0:00
Stems Vs. Multitracks 1:30
Zero Out Your Files 4:18
Name Your Files Correctly 6:35
Don’t Clip Your Audio Files 9:40
Clean Up Edits Before Bouncing 12:20
Organize The Session Before Bouncing 13:10
Include Project Info Guidelines 14:20
Do Mixing Engineers Want Raw Or Processed Files? 16:25
How To Export Perfect Files Every Time 18:58
Testing Your Files 22:57
Outro 24:45

Пікірлер: 58

  • @jloiben12
    @jloiben123 ай бұрын

    I am really glad this is being talked about. This is just bare minimum professionalism. There are many different ways of doing this but taking the time to make the files usable for someone else should just be expected

  • @MakePopMusic

    @MakePopMusic

    3 ай бұрын

    100%

  • @user-mf7ue9nu4s

    @user-mf7ue9nu4s

    3 ай бұрын

    Lol I said same thing on another video... pre-mixing is the minimum expected to really be labeled a beat maker. The worst part is the majority of famous beat makers from what I've seen ... don't even eq or balance volumes . Instead they have a partner jump in and do the pre-mix and mixing.

  • @mayoshanebeats

    @mayoshanebeats

    3 ай бұрын

    please Talk about the Nazi's in America and The military invasions coming from Nazi's. Warn people. Black military men and women have spoken about this. Check 4 yourself

  • @bro.sweets4583

    @bro.sweets4583

    2 ай бұрын

    @@user-mf7ue9nu4s …and worse beat makers (composers) get the title as the producer

  • @basilbreen
    @basilbreen3 ай бұрын

    I love these videos where we get an insight into your workflow. The value in this extends way beyond just sending files!

  • @seanlorenzopenzo
    @seanlorenzopenzo3 ай бұрын

    Love this! I’m a musician who often records cello remotely for producers/artists. This is super helpful to know in getting the engineer tracks that are easy to work with. Thank you!

  • @cekirdekci32
    @cekirdekci323 ай бұрын

    finally one video on this topic ommgggg. finally. like finally. thank you so much Austin;)

  • @G-Doggy
    @G-Doggy3 ай бұрын

    All great points. Thank you!

  • @yankeeshoota
    @yankeeshoota3 ай бұрын

    thank you sm for this, these new videos about the admin side of production r rlly helpful

  • @nasanoir310
    @nasanoir3103 ай бұрын

    Oh my goodness, thank you so much! This is very helpful. I was literally just struggling with messed up files on my new song, this video is a Godsend

  • @TheBelse
    @TheBelse3 ай бұрын

    Very concise ....great film ..things work better if the mix engineer stays happy. Big love !

  • @BlakeXterra
    @BlakeXterra3 ай бұрын

    lol when I saw this on my feed I was like, I already know all that basic stuff but NO! There's a lot of small details that almost every starting producer tends to ignore, thx for all this amazing content Austin!

  • @arnaudnieuwoudt5211
    @arnaudnieuwoudt52112 ай бұрын

    Valuable info, thanks

  • @IsmaelMulti
    @IsmaelMulti2 ай бұрын

    Bro, you totally nailed it!

  • @michaelbsinging
    @michaelbsinging3 ай бұрын

    CONGRATS ON 200K!!!!!

  • @ELTEEMUSIC
    @ELTEEMUSIC2 ай бұрын

    Great vid!

  • @transformationgeneration
    @transformationgeneration3 ай бұрын

    Great advice.

  • @Ferna471
    @Ferna4712 ай бұрын

    Another tip is to always check before sending, like open a new session, import every file and check everything sounds good and there's no pops, clicks, etc. I've had it happen that for example my cpu couldn't handle exporting a specific project at the same time and had weird artifacts in the audio, so i had to export pretty much track by track to avoid the overload

  • @MakePopMusic

    @MakePopMusic

    2 ай бұрын

    Absolutely! Drag them in a new session so you can hear what the next person will be hearing when they pick it up.

  • @camstanley
    @camstanley3 ай бұрын

    thank god someone said it!!!

  • @imryangallus
    @imryangallus2 ай бұрын

    Now we just need the algorithm so push this video to the right people! 👏

  • @realraven2000
    @realraven20003 ай бұрын

    18:20 committing fx fine for inserts but what about sende? do your ever then a Buches (VOCAL VERBS, drum verbs, delayd etc )

  • @john-martinson
    @john-martinson3 ай бұрын

    Hi, Austin! Thank you for this video! Just he one I need right now! But I still didn't get it about Multis - what if some group processing is a part of my production? I mean for instance I have some GTR stacks (summing tracks) like: ALL GTRs: - GTR Stack 1 - - GTR 1 - L - - GTR 2 - R - GTR Stack 2 - - GTR 3 - L - - GTR 4 - R Where GTR 1 & 2 are routed to GTR Stack 1, etc. Each individual channel was it's own processing, and each Stack has it's own processing (for Vocal stacks it may be the summing DeEsser, for example). Thus I can't export GTR Stack 1 & GTR Stack 2 without individual tracks - as Mix Engineer might want to adjust Pan or instruments' balance within a Stack. And I can't export individual track only - as Stack bus has some suming processing which is a part of sound. If I export all of them (indiv. tracks + summing stack) - it'd be wrong as Stack sound is summing signal of individual tracks + some processing. What should I do? Should I remove all bus processing for stacks? Or should I produce in such a way that my stack tracks won't contain any bus processing at all? For me it's difficult to separate production and mixing process completely. How would you do this?

  • @micahcornell9383
    @micahcornell93833 ай бұрын

    You're the goat

  • @EKs_Production
    @EKs_Production3 ай бұрын

    Keep up the hard work brother :) Can you make a video about how you organise all your production files(it will help us a lot)

  • @jayfortunato9584
    @jayfortunato95843 ай бұрын

    Hi Austin, thanks for the info. Usually the track faders are adjusted to various levels when coming up with the draft mix which assume is the reference sent along with the stems or multi tracks to a mix or mastering engineer. Should the track faders be reset to flat before the export or left as they were set in the mix you considered your target example?

  • @MakePopMusic

    @MakePopMusic

    3 ай бұрын

    Definitely leave them how you have them so the next person knows your original balance.

  • @jayfortunato9584

    @jayfortunato9584

    3 ай бұрын

    Thanks Austin, very helpful.@@MakePopMusic

  • @drew8674
    @drew86742 ай бұрын

    Hey man i have a question. Do you have any idea how to make glitchy effect on vocals like SX did on his song “locked out” at around 32 seconds

  • @MakePopMusic

    @MakePopMusic

    2 ай бұрын

    tremelo effect on the vocal. We did it in our really old Billie Eilish video!

  • @AdamSliger
    @AdamSliger3 ай бұрын

    i'm just gonna send one mono mp3 and you can do what you want with it thx

  • @MakePopMusic

    @MakePopMusic

    3 ай бұрын

    don't tempt me with a good time

  • @cassidyraebarrera
    @cassidyraebarrera23 күн бұрын

    Curious if you have made a video about sharing files for engineers? I've heard many people say File Pass, Dropbox, WeTransfer, Google Drive etc., Curious if you would make a video about how professionals share files safely to clients? For mix reviews and such. That would be super helpful!!

  • @MakePopMusic

    @MakePopMusic

    23 күн бұрын

    I haven’t. I use Dropbox but funny enough we have a video about handling revisions coming on Friday where I talk about file delivery a little bit

  • @AVDRE
    @AVDRE3 ай бұрын

    bouta bookmark this video to send people instead of explaining every time lmao

  • @thenickisonfire
    @thenickisonfire3 ай бұрын

    Unfortunately, programs like Ableton Live do not have the ability to include group effects on individual tracks during export. In fact, when I try to export the multitrack, it exports all individual tracks with their effects, and then a 'group' track where you can hear all the tracks combined with the effects and volume adjustments made in the group. Do you have any advice or solution for exporting individual tracks with group effects?

  • @Esthy

    @Esthy

    3 ай бұрын

    It's definitely an annoying issue. I think at the moment the only way to get around this is to do it manually. Either mute all other tracks of the group or solo the one you want and export the group track / OR apply all group processing on each track and then ungroup before bouncing. Personally, if I'm mixing a track that someone has created in Ableton I will just straight up ask for the session as is :) Hope this helps!

  • @john-martinson

    @john-martinson

    3 ай бұрын

    Same problem with Logic. Still can't figure it out.

  • @CharlesHenryVolk
    @CharlesHenryVolk3 ай бұрын

    Hey Austin, just for clarity, does “zeroed out” mean all starting from the same spot i.e. from zero?

  • @itsmykyl

    @itsmykyl

    3 ай бұрын

    I think that’s what he meant

  • @MakePopMusic

    @MakePopMusic

    3 ай бұрын

    Yep! Exactly!

  • @tonye9045
    @tonye90452 ай бұрын

    Going through this exact situation currently with an album I’m mixing. Client can’t understand why I’m charging so many hours per mix because I’m having to line up and name a lot of the files 🥴

  • @patrick5301
    @patrick53013 ай бұрын

    Oh lord. I was sat here thinking about how I could take busses and feed them into themselves as sidechain signal, in order to get the exact plugin response of the collective bus signal, imprinted across all individual tracks. Meanwhile, the music industry is full of Mr. FL Studio, sending you multi-tracks of "Current", "Master" and 100 other tracks that are either individual tracks, busses compiled of said individual tracks, or tracks that include a random combination of multiple elements. In addition to a random file called "Sidechain" that applies heavy bus processing across at least 80% of all elements. Coupled with an unusable naming scheme caused by automatic mixer routing and constant re-routing + the closing follow-up of "do you also need the dry stems"? I am dead.

  • @JonDeth
    @JonDeth3 ай бұрын

    My generation, or myself anyway, expected mills and gen-z to become highly literate and proficient in computers with all the advancements, but the exact opposite in fact happened lol. *It's dumbfounding that people have become this sloppy.* I use Magic Music Maker; love it or hate it, and it fortunately auto-labels but I still have a similar habit relative to what you're suggesting. I never transfer stuff to worry about it though. *In fact, that's one of my current goals for my music ATM. Organizing things very thoroughly and finishing some "new" music of mine in metal for distribution by June.* I can produce a high quality demo release which is good enough for me to launch my name with a professional appearance. I will also start my own label as an LLC and coordinate that for a professional and respectable presence.

  • @AlmogBenAri93
    @AlmogBenAri932 ай бұрын

    when i try to export multies , it will always say : please change your naming scheme , as it doesnt provide unique name for the files

  • @connermannie6223
    @connermannie62233 ай бұрын

    📝📝📝

  • @RelicLabzEntertainment
    @RelicLabzEntertainment2 ай бұрын

    And most engineers ive seen rather have the project session over anything else, they more than likely will take off majority of the plugins you have set and redo them. Theyre also fluent in most DAW to accommodate more business.

  • @hugogtmusic
    @hugogtmusic3 ай бұрын

    100%

  • @InVerum
    @InVerum3 ай бұрын

    FUCKING THANK YOU

  • @RelicLabzEntertainment
    @RelicLabzEntertainment2 ай бұрын

    I see what your sayin and honestly you should take general house keeping seriously anyway. But bro grammy winning engineers talk about how they always get files that are un organized and its cool the misuc is what matters its our job to figure it out😂

  • @rasolzamini8678
    @rasolzamini86783 ай бұрын

    Paste to origin

  • @svenisaksson3970
    @svenisaksson39703 ай бұрын

    You are doing (at least) two things wrong, that will cause a lot of work for the receiving engineer: 1) It's important that all tracks start at the same point, but there is absolutely no reason for them to be of the same length! It's actually preferable if they are not. Take the "DR Intro Drums" track as an example. If you export this track as song length, you are acting my time. Because I have to go through the whole track to make sure there's no extra audio lurking in there. If you only export the track as long as needed to include the audio, I'd be confident that there is no more audio on that track. Do this for 100 tracks, and you save a lot of the engineers time (and your money). The way you export is lazy exporting, that'll cost you in the end. Spend some time and export the tracks no longer than they need to be. Do separate export runs, if need be. You'll save the receiving engineers time and your money. 2) DON'T export mono tracks as stereo files! A center panned audio file is NOT the same as a mono audio file. I hate it when I get those because I have to waste my time, and the clients money, to split them up. OK, Cubase has greatly improved its ability to do this lately (it used to be that I had to use a separate program to do this), but it's still an extra unnecessary task that needs to be performed (and costs money). Also: The way you showed it, the file will not be clipped. This only happen when the audio level exceeds 0dBFS. Zero on the fader is in relation to a reference level, set in the "Project Setup", and does not show 0dBFS. "They're no way back if a file is clipped" This is not exactly true. iZotope RX has a module that allows you to de-clip clipped audio files (within reason, of cause). I have used it to "save" several clipped files.

  • @bro.sweets4583
    @bro.sweets45832 ай бұрын

    I like the video but I don't agree as a mix engineer that all multitracks sent to a mix engineer should not be dry, unless the artist or whomever say they want this on this or these reverb, delay etc as is on in the track in the mix. Mix Engineer is to enhance the recording to the next level with our imagination with tools we use, giving the song emotions. within the song

  • @MakePopMusic

    @MakePopMusic

    2 ай бұрын

    In my opinion, and every pro mixing engineer I've worked with, I want the tracks exactly how the artist and producer left off. The mixing engineer's job is to take the production mix and take it to the next level. That can include making creative decisions, redoing certain fx, etc. But I don't think that needs to include trying to replicate a bunch of stuff the producer and artist already did in their roughs.

  • @markmannen94
    @markmannen942 ай бұрын

    Excellent video Austin! Question: I use Ozone 11 on my master channel when i pitch songs but when its time to send stems to an mixing engineer i hate that i have to remove ozone 11 wich makes the stems sound worse.. Takes 5-7 times for the engineer usually to get it as good or better as my original demo with ozone 11 on. I realy wish i could bounce the project stems with the master effect on without making the mix messed up. How should i go about this? Thx! 🫶

  • @hamo_eah

    @hamo_eah

    2 ай бұрын

    Ward