Outboard compressors in the rack at Boom Studios

How to export your tracks for mixing

This is what I need to mix your song. You don’t need to be an engineer. If you’ve ever exported a song, exporting its tracks works much the same way.

Send me your rough mixStep by step⁠

Never exported tracks? Say so on the call. It takes five minutes to walk through.

Six things to check before you send

  1. One file per track

    Export every track as its own audio file: kick, snare, bass, each guitar, each vocal. If something was recorded with two microphones, that’s two files.

  2. Start every file at the beginning

    Each file starts at the very beginning of the song, even if the instrument comes in later. That way they line up when I open them, and I don’t have to guess where anything goes.

  3. Turn off your master channel effects

    If there’s a compressor or a limiter on your master channel, switch it off before you export. It makes your rough mix louder, but I need the tracks without it.

  4. Export WAV, at your session’s sample rate

    Use the sample rate you recorded at, and 24-bit if your software asks. Please don’t convert to MP3, because it throws away detail the mix needs.

  5. Name each file by instrument

    Call them Kick, Bass, Lead vocal and so on, so I’m not opening a folder of files called Audio 1, Audio 2, Audio 3.

  6. Add your rough mix and a few references

    Include your rough mix as you’ve been listening to it, plus two or three songs you like the sound of, with a line on what you like about each.

Put it all in one folder and send me a link from WeTransfer, Dropbox, Google Drive or any cloud service.