Are my mixes ready for mastering?? help me out

[jazzy655]

Hey guys. Hope all is well. I posted this on recording.org also (thats a great forum btw)
I've got a bit of a dilema. We're recording our second album right now, and we're in the process of mixing and also search for a mastering enginner.It's hip hop stuff. We've decided to mix the album ourselves since we are indie and our budget is really tight at this point.

The problem is i've done a couple mixes and I think they are decent, but what do I know
I've learned a ton on this site and have come to trust the advice I get when i'm here, so basically i need some help know if my mixes are even good enough to go to mastering. I need to know if their are any obvious mistakes that absolutely have to be fixed it these mixes (i.e. not enough lowend, bad stereo field, eq issues).

You can hear 3 of the tracks at http://www.soundclick.com/bands/page...?bandID=289403

Any help on this is greatly apprecieated, especially from the MEs on here. I'd love to have one of the cats on this site master our album next month.

Thanks

[blayz2002]

Originally Posted by jazzy655

basically i need some help know if my mixes are even good enough to go to mastering.

I personally think only you know the answer to that question. Do you feel you have pulled everything you can out of the mix in respect to the equipment you have available? If the answer is yes then Yes.

If no then I would try this. Get a CD player hooked up to the D/A side of your sound card by coming digitally out of the CD player (SPDIF or whatever) thus avoiding the A/D conversion (If you don't have a CD player with a digital out I would say worth the investment as it will help you in the long run to get your mixes up with the best). Then get ya self a bunch of CD's that you rate sonically ..in a simular style to your tracks. This might help http://gearslutz.com/board/showthread.php3?t=38708 . See how your tracks stand up (although the stuff you will be hearing is aleady mastered) this is what level your trying to get close to. If you feel you can then go back and improve the mixes do so. If not then maybe just best to let the ME do his best with what you have.

[Bob Olhsson]

The main thing is to not hype your opinion of your mix with level.

I'd rip some reference material and pull the volume down so it's the same subjective volume as when your mix is peaking somewhere between -3 and -6. Then tweak up your mix so it sounds as good or hopefully better than your reference at the same subjective volume level.

Many people then run three mixes, one with the vocal sitting where it sounds right and two more with the vocal up and then down a half dB. respectively. This covers you for when part of a song needs a tiny bit more or less vocal after mastering.

The mastering engineer's job is to maintain YOUR mix's musical balance while bringing the volume up to a competitive volume level.

A mix is all about the presentation of the music and the recording. Mastering is all about the presentation of your mix.