here are a few cool guidelines in order to make the mastering work in an easy way

first of all - file managment:

1 make a folder with the album/band name
2 make 2 folders:and name them:

Mixes Folder

Masters Folder

the reson for this is if you need to go back and fix the mastering you will always have the original mixes in a folder to work on


put all of the mixes in the mixes folder and name them final mixes - if there is a different version of the mix mention the name of it with what is different.


in the mastering folder put only masters and you can number them or file them by date.


next thing is to check your mixes on your systems - computer and another system that you know good- if the computer is what you know best then use that and listen carfuly to the mixes with your speakers and headphones too- the headphones can help you find little things that are not noticed with the big speakers like noises or distortions or cracks/pops/clicks

after check print them as WAV files - i recommend stereo interleaved
files - one stereo file - that way both left and right will be starting and ending at the same time and no glitches -
it can be possible to use multi mono files that will work good- when both exported good- but its safer to use the stereo interleaved
becuase they are exported as one file.

the next step is to make sure that the level of recording the mix is not too loud
i recommend having a peak of minus 3 db (-3db peaking)

it can be lower like minus 6 db or lower or higher


the reason for the lower level is that first of all having headroom gives the mastering more options to work with and the signal is not overloaded or compressed too much by the software.


check your sample rate and bit rate
some computers work better on a smaller bit rate or sample rate becuyase of the internal cards - if its an onboard card i recommend going for 44.1khz and trying to see if it sounds good on 24 bit but also i recommend doing a 16 bit export it might sound different and might fit better

the next step is doing critical listening to it again after the exporting and hearing if its good

then its time to start with the tonal work