I mix in Pro Tools HD so there are a couple of ways we can go about this, and they are:
◉ Send me your Pro Tools session.
◉ Send me the individual tracks/stems from your recording session.
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If you have recorded or the engineer has recorded your session in Pro Tools, that session and the relevant files is all I will need to begin. Here is a step by step how-to guide in getting your sessions safely ready to send over. These files can be very large so following these steps will ensure they only contain what is being used and remove any large excess audio files and potential issues.
◉ In Pro Tools, click the File menu and select “Save Copy In”.
◉ When the next window opens, in the section named “Items to Copy” check the “Audio Files” box and click “OK”. (None of the following checkboxes are needed).
◉ Select an easy to locate place to Save the new file and click “Save”.
◉ Pro Tools should now create a new save and session folder with all the relevant audio files. You may now close the session.
◉ NOTE: That’s it for ensuring all the files are present, but the session folder may still be very large so a couple more steps are needed if this is the case.
◉ Open the newly created session in Pro Tools.
◉ On the right-hand side of the edit window, locate the Clips bin/region.
◉ Select the down arrow to open the Clips menu, highlight “Select” and click “Unused”.
◉ NOTE: You should see a number of files highlighted in the Clips menu. These may be various vocal/instrument takes or anything not used in the final session and we do not need these.
◉ Click the down arrow again to open the Clips menu and select “Clear”. (This next step will remove the unused files, Please be extra sure you are doing this in your newly created session from the previous steps).
◉ At your discretion select either “Delete” or “Move to Recycle Bin”.
◉ That’s it! Not too hard. the file is now ready to be uploaded to your choice of transfer service (Dropbox, Google Drive, etc) to send the corresponding link.
◉ If you would like to further dramatically lower the file size (by another half even!), or send all your sessions at once then I recommend using a program such as WinZIP or WinRAR to consolidate the file into a ZIP or RAR package. This is not necessary but could dramatically reduce your upload/download time and required cloud space.
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If you have recorded in a DAW like Logic or Ableton, you will need to bounce out your individual tracks from that DAW as WAV or AIFF files to send. We prefer these files to be 24bit WAV audio files but if they are already in another format that is OK.
Each program will have a different way of going through this process so you will have to consult the user manual or look up the process via the internet. There will be a lot of information on this as it’s very common practice depending on the program. If you get stuck please let us know and maybe we can try our best to point you in the right direction.
The most important things to do before bouncing out these tracks are as follows:
◉ Set all your faders to unity gain (0db). If things are too high or low the resulting track will bounce out as such. Trust us to find the balance.
◉ Remove any additional reverbs, delays and effects unless they are integral to that instruments sound (such as a filter on a synthesizer or crafted effect to create a sound). If you are unsure about this then simply provide two versions when sending and make a note of it. One with effects and one without.
◉ Ensure each file is bounced from the very beginning of the session, keeping in it any blank space. This will ensure they all line up correctly on my import.
◉ Programs like Ableton have a “export selected tracks” option. This can be used to highlight all the tracks needed to be bounced and will do them individually. This works better than the “all individual tracks” option as it does not add unneeded extra tracks. Please note: this does not seperate your groups or drum groups. They will need to be done manually before exporting.
◉ If you have any further questions about this please do not hesitate to contact us and ask.
