Preparing for your Demo Mix

Please read instructions in entirety. A video explanation for your particular DAW is below along with some audio examples of mixing. Please keep in mind a demo mix is a demonstration of how your song will sound. A snippet of your Mixed and Mastered song will be sent after completion. If you would like the full mix you will be sent an invoice for the song or project.

SEND FILES TO LAUNCHPADTEXASPROMO@GMAIL.COM

First, record / bounce your final stereo mix as you would normally. This should be a 24 or 16 bit stereo file at the same sampling rate as your session. If there are any “mastering plugins” on the master output you can leave these on as this will give us a reference point as to how the mix was sounding at your end.

 Create a folder on your hard drive and label it with the name of the song. Name the file ‘your song name.wav’  and put it into the folder.

 At this stage please remove all master bus processing that has been added purely for level.

 Anything that has been added at the end of the mix solely with the intention of making it louder can be removed however any compression that has been written into or mixed into and is integral to the sound of the mix can and should be left on. Likewise, any EQ or stereo enhancement plugins that are essential to the sound and vibe of the mix should be left on. Those that were “thrown on” at the end to make it wider and brighter can be removed.

 Then without changing any levels, plug-ins, automation or anything else create your stems as per the below instructions and add them into the folder with the bounce of your full mix:

Making a stem

Snare Stem Example

Mute (or disable the outputs of) all tracks except the snare. Record (or bounce) this snare-only stem through your normal stereo buss (including any stereo buss processing as described above). Don’t change any settings. Name the file 1. Snare .wav .

This process is then repeated for all stems.

PLEASE DO NOT MAKE MONO TRACKS for any stems including the kick and bass.

 Include all buss processing that is on the stems that you are bouncing.

 If making multiple synths stems, you MUST bounce each part out with it’s respective effects on. That is to say if your lead sound has been sent to a bus with reverb on it, we want the lead sound WITH the reverb on. We don’t want a “dry” lead sound, loads of other “dry” sounds and then a bus of “reverb” – that is no good to us at all!

 If we have had prior communication as to what stems we are after then continue with this process to provide us with the list of stems we have pre arranged.