Does your ME want the mix bus clean (no comp, AC)?

[Dimension Zero]

Does your Mastering Engineer want the mix bus clean? No bus comp, no analogue channel, no DuY Tape or Wide, etc.

I've been studying Charles Dye's mixing methods and he uses a ton of plugs on the mix bus. But, a mastering engineer friend of mine says this ties his hands. He likes no plugs on the mix bus so he can do his job.

However, Charle's Dye is emulating mixing methods of analog consoles. So, back in the analog days you couldn't really bypass what is now considered mix bus processing.

What's your preferred method before giving it to a mastering engineer? Why? Interested in the pros/cons of the Charle's Dye bus processing methods.

[JSR]

Mix buss compression is fine...just don't compress the hell out of it.

An analog tape simulation is fine also, as in the old day you would be printing your mix to tape anyway.

I think the big *NO* is limiting. If you limit your mix it is really hard for a mastering guy to do his job since everything is basicilly smashed together.

I also recommend not printing your mixes too hot; you need to give a mastering engineer headroom to work. If you give a mastering engineer a mix with 1db of headroom, you really don't give him any room to boost with EQ. I've spoken to many mastering guy's who get limited mixes with 0db of headroom...they basically can't do anything.

[Seeee]

yeah, I have two mix buses.. one for ghetto mastering with a dither and no headroom and another one with dither and the limiter. of course i mix OTB and RTD so this is possible.

but yeah, a mix for an ME should have lots of headroom, the 2 mix compression is a part of the mix and I am using it from the time i start mixing till I rtd. slamming the piss out of the mixer to get it louder isnt acceptable with a limiter or compressor.

[WorkingEngineer]

Yea,

I gott agree with JSR. Of course I think it also depends on what you currenntly think about the quality of you masters. What I mean is, if you are turning to this ME because he gerts a sound that your looking for thatn folowing his advice once and hearing the result might be a positive thing. If you generlly happy woth YOUR SOUND then dont change it for some ME.

I have a hard time believing that a ME is gonna be any better at compressing a productions 2 mix after hearing it only once than I can do during the Hours of mixdown. I just get so sick of mid level mastering engineers saying this to engneers and they go and run the mix thru some "finilizer" and obliterate it. Its comedic.

Now limiting/clipping and final leveling.. thats his job.

Mateo

[Dominique Brethes]

JSR's answer is spot on. These days I seem to receive far too many mastering jobs where the amount of limiting is so high that all the dynamics have gone and most waveforms have been clipped badly. A good mastering engineer is often expected to produce miracles but when too much "un-musical" distortion is present in the material due to over limiting and the levels are totally squashed, this makes our job just that little bit more difficult...
It's a difficult choice for mixing engineers as if their mixes are too quiet, the artist/client/record company may complain that it "doesn't sound as good" as similar released (and mastered) material, as generally for most listeners, louder equates better.
The answer to please clients and mastering engineers: do two versions of the mix. One with limiting approaching the levels a commecial release for the client to evaluate the mix, and one version with less or no limiting to give room for the mastering engineer to use his skills at making it sound even better.