Now I mix for fun. Have not (yet) been uploading any of my stuff to itunes or soundcloud or etc. But if I “did,” what kind of settings should I use? Were I to send a wav to an engineer for mastering, what would I use?
Any guidelines or suggestions?
I record at 48K/24-bit. Is that what y’all do these days?
When you’re ready to send your stuff to iTunes, etc., your aggregator (CD Baby, Distrokid) will tell you exactly what settings to use when rendering. It’s been a while since I released anything but if I recall correctly, CD Baby expects 44.1/16 WAV files.
You are invoking a sample rate conversion because you record at 48kHz and export at 44.1Hz. You will actually hear the difference, sample rate conversion is not good practice.
We recommend you to upload in a lossless format like WAV, FLAC, AIFF, or ALAC. If you can, the bit depth and sample rate should be 16 bit and 48 kHz respectively.
When you upload a track on SoundCloud, we optimize it for streaming. As part of that process, we resample and transcode it to a high-performance codec. These codecs are highly optimized, but they can increase peak levels, which can cause clipping. We recommend that you leave between -0.5 and -1 dBFS of headroom to prevent artifacts like clipping during transcoding. Make sure to check the resulting stream in the rare case where more headroom is required.
I’m glad you asked this, because I have been uploading MP3s thinking that the size of my uploads would count against my time limit. But rereading this, it sounds like you have every reason to upload the WAV file of your mixes.
A couple more things - You can also enable “downloads” on your SoundCloud song so others can download it. Also, you can also keep your track “Private” so nobody can see it unless you share the link. I use this all the time so I can check mixes in the car on the way to work.
Thanks, Mike. Is 48/16 suitable for, say, spotify, itunes, and other streaming formats?
I’m not under the impression that CD as a distribution medium is very popular anymore, but could be wrong. Is it? My hunch is that mixing/mastering engineers might still use it a lot, but I’m not sure the consumer market is into CDs anymore. I haven’t researched this or read anything on it, I just know that my kids (mid-20’s), kids from our church, my wife, etc. haven’t purchased a CD in years. I haven’t played a CD in years, much less purchased one. I think the only CD player I have presently is in my car. I don’t have one in the house or on any of my computers. I have a CD player “somewhere” but IDK where it is. When I listen to music it’s either in my studio or streamed via my phone or tablet, sometimes through my Bose Sound Dock, or sometimes my headphones.
As @BigAlRocks said, CD Baby or DistroKid or whoever you choose to use will let you know. I used DistroKid a couple of years ago and simply uploaded 44.1kHz/24-bit WAV files to the site. It’s pretty straightforward once you wade into the site you want to use.
I agree with this. I haven’t bought a CD for a few years now, and my kids (teenagers) simply aren’t interested in CDs period. That said though, if I want to “keep” the music, I’ll buy a CD just because…
strange to read, CD came and kicked other formats ass…then it comes to their turn, the CD and all that cd players fading out, probably not to be included in mass marketed pc’s even…
My reaper render is set at
WAV render is 24PCM 44.1
MP3 is 320kbps and 100 best and 44.1
