Checklist before sending your track to mastering

The guys of zeitgeistmastering.com mentioned some helpful tips on how to prepare your tracks for mastering in a youtube video. Quickly summing up, here are 8 essential tips:

1. Make sure that there are no effects on your master bus when you bounce (export)
   • In case you have essential effects on your master, send 2 versions:
     • fx mix, giving your engineer an idea of the effect
     • no fx mix, giving him the opportunity to apply his effects
     • however: don’t leave any limiter in place
2. Make sure the level of your track peaks somewhere between -6 and -3dB
3. If the peak level of your track is higher than -3dB, reduce the levels of the single tracks rather than lowering the master fader
4. Eliminate unwanted noise within your mix (for example by applying low cut and try to keep your mix clean and dynamic
5. Leave some silence at the beginning and at the end of the exported track (2 – 8 bars)
6. Bounce your track in the format your used audio samples where saved in (24 bit is the most common and adequate)
7. Don’t normalize or apply any dither when you export
8. Think about realistic and relevant reference tracks that you might be able to suggest to your mastering engineer.