Services & Payments Questions
2. Select one of our service. We offer Mixing and Mastering, and Just Mastering if you don’t need mixing.
3. On the Mixing (or Mastering) service page there is a purchase button. That button will take you to our Purchase Form. The purchase form is a completely customizable form that allows you to select your song count and track count per song along with any other details for your project.
4. After you’ve filled out all of your song details, notes, information, etc.. you can then hit the “Add to Cart” Button. You will then be taken to the checkout page where you can finalize your order.
5. After you checkout, you will then head over to our upload page located at mixstudios.com/upload where you can upload the audio files/folders for your song or songs.
6. Once we see your order come in, your engineer will contact you and let you know. Once the files are reviewed, we will let you know if we need anything. If not, we will start mixing!
7. Once the mix is 95% complete, you will be emailed a link to review your mix. After you review your mix, you can then send back revisions / changes to your engineer. At this point, a live stream can be scheduled or revisions can be sent back and forth until complete.
8. After the mix is perfect we send you the final WAV’s and you’re all done!
Here’s how it works for your first purchase:
- You purchase a package from us.
- You upload your files.
- We mix your song.
- We send your song to you for approval with a couple small mutes throughout the song or the middle section of the song with the beginning and end cut out.
- At this point, you approve or disapprove of the work being done.
- Approved: You reply with your revisions and we send you a full unmuted version of your mix. Then work continues until the song is finished. After this point, you are not eligible for a refund since we’ve already sent you an untampered version of your song.
- Not Approved: Work is stopped and you are refunded your money.
- If approved we will move forward with revisions and live stream revisions if necessary.
If you still have questions, don’t hesitate to contact us.
At Mix Studios Online, we think it is important to make sure that the full potential of your project is mixed. For you to sound good and for us to have good work out there. As a result, we include most services inside of flat rate packages to make the process simple.
Mixing & Mastering packages include the following:
- Unlimited Pitch Corrections: This includes vocals, instruments, and percussion.
- Unlimited Timing Corrections: This includes vocals, instruments, and percussion.
- Drum Replacements
- Mastering
- Unlimited Revisions
- Live Streaming
- Instrumental of your mix.
- Acapela from your mix.
Just Mastering Packages Include The Following:
- Use of high end gear and plugins for audio enhancement.
- Live Streaming Revision time.
- 5 email revisions
- 4, 8 , or 12 stem mastering upgrades available when buying package.
- The same mastering services we include with our mixes.
Rhythm Correction: MANUALLY adjusted timing of instruments and vocals to tighten up the mix and clean up drifting frequencies.
Pitch Correction: Analyzation of all vocal tracks and manual adjustment of pitch, timing, dynamic, and modulation of voice.
Rush Delivery (add-on service): Receiving final mix ready for live revisions within 48 hours of purchase. This add-on service fee is NOT COVERED by our money back guarantee.
Yes.
Purchasing happens on our custom mixing purchase form. You can selected the exact number of songs you’d like to order. Discounts work like this:
- 1 song: original price.
- 2 songs: save you 5% on full order.
- 3 – 4 songs: save you 10% on full order.
- 5 – 9 songs: save you 15% on full order.
- 10+ songs: save you 20% on full order.
Live Streaming comes in after the initial (Mix 1) has been sent to you. In that email, we will ask you to send over any revisions you have by email and ask you what time would be best for a live stream session. When your revisions list comes back, we’ll work on those revisions before the scheduled live stream session. Then we’ll either send you the new revisions or wait for our scheduled live stream session, whichever comes first.
If you’re on a Mac: You will receive a link that can be copied into your browsers address bar and steaming can take place right in your browser.
If you’re on Windows: You will need VLC, iTunes, Windows Media Player or any media player that can play a stream file. VLC usually works best.
During the live stream, you will be able to communicate with us via chat box where you can request changes to the song in real time and A/B your requests to decide what you like best and actually use your engineer to make your song sound right in a fashion we find to be the most efficient and similar to actually being in a studio.
Note: We will never see your credit card number or payment information. All we care about is your name and contact information.
We have the utmost respect for privacy of the artists working with us. It is your call to decide when, where, and how your music is used.
We guarantee that if we would like to add your song to our gallery or promote it in social media, you will be contacted and reserve every right to decline our request. We own no rights over your music and we promise to respect that fact.
However, if you request a refund within 3 hours of your purchase because you changed your mind or submitted the wrong project, we will provide a full refund for that purchase.
After that 3 hours, we may have already began scheduling live revisions around yours or working on your session to get it to you in time.
When we are ready to send you the final mix or mastered version of your project, we will send you a version of your song that has areas muted or manipulated so you can here what the majority of the song sounds like.
If you do not like the work being done, we will refund you your money, but you will not get the actual copy of your mix.
If you approve and ask for the full version of the mix, you are agreeing to the work and can no longer ask for your money back beyond that point.
Rush Delivery: 1-2 days
The team at Mix Studios understands that sometimes you need a project done fast. Maybe it has already been done once but now has a tight deadline, maybe you are trying to squeeze a new track onto an album last minute and the label won’t wait longer for it. Because of these and many more reasons, we offer a rush delivery option during checkout.
If you do not purchase rush delivery, turnaround time for a final mix (not including your live revisions) is 4-8 days. We always shoot to get things done as soon as possible, but that is the time frame to expect. If you purchase two songs at once, you can expect them BOTH in the same time frame from when they were individually purchased. If you do purchase rush delivery service, you can expect to receive your mix for final revisions within 48 hours of purchase.
Why 4-8 days?
Our process is extensive. Your song goes through a minimum of two engineers before it gets back to you. First, it goes through a complete and thorough editing process which includes: session cleanup, pitch corrections, timing corrections, alignment between multiple takes, arrangement corrections (if necessary), drum replacements, phase corrections, etc.. THEN it is send to mixing. Once the song is mixed, it gets reviewed the day after and then sent to you.
Note: Please be aware that the cost of Rush Delivery is not included in our money back guarantee. If you get your money back for a session you purchased rush delivery for, you will be refunded all money EXCEPT the cost of Rush Delivery. Please see the Rush Delivery & Revision Time Disclaimer for details.
Also, this isn’t really a problem since we usually never do more than the standard amount of revisions anyway.
After you’ve placed your order through our order form, you will head over to our upload page where you can upload your session.
Make sure the names of the folder with your audio matches up with the name of the song you put down in your purchase.
Pro Tools, Studio One and Logic.
However, it is recommended to just send us WAV files for your entire song, stemmed out sound by sound.
Format: WAV, 24bit, 44.1k
Many people who submit projects may figure out ways to get their song to sound acceptable, but not until they spend a lot of time experimenting and even then not sounding a way that amplifies the song’s potential. Let us bring that potential out while you get your creativity to work on the next big vision you have for a song.
You are hiring professionals for:
– Over 10 years of experience in getting projects done.
– Use of quality gear and high end plugins
– Mixing talent that has mixed for award winning artists
– Quality and experience clean up and editing of vocal and instrument tracks
– Quick turnaround time
– A customized session package without the headache or excessive price tag
Yes.
When we send you the first mix, the mix will have portions of the track manipulated or muted so the song can not be used, but can be sampled and heard for deciding on the purchase.
After listening to your first mix, if you email us back requesting any revisions we will assume you’ve just approved the mix. The reason is because the second mix will be the full, untampered, version along with the revisions requested. At that point, a refund is no longer permitted.
Please also be aware that Rush Deliver service and Live Session Time add-ons are NON REFUNDABLE purchases. If you decide you do not like the project, you will be refunded all money EXCEPT the cost of these extra services.
Standard Time: 4-8 days
Rush Delivery: 1-2 days.
Although these are the default turnovers, sometimes it can be quicker depending on how difficult your song is. Song difficulty is measured by how much work it entails. I.E: lots of pitch corrections, lots of timing corrections.
If you need your song back sooner than our average turnaround time, you can purchase Rush Delivery when buying our services that will ensure you receive a final mix or version for review within 48 hours.
Mixing & Mastering Questions
We offer Full Session Stems. These are all the tracks in the session printed to individual audio tracks with all the effects, processors, etc that they have in the full mix of the song.
All of these audio files are the full length of the song, so when we provide a full session stem, you can import these files into whatever DAW you use and they will line up ready for you to use however you’d like.
Just like our Pitch Correction services, we believe these sorts of adjustments come out better when they are judged by a musician to ensure it sounds natural and as intended. Automated corrections can sometimes put small things in weird places, or even make things TOO perfect sometimes.
We edit acoustic drums manually to make sure everything is tight, but still sounds natural and has that perfect swing and rhythm that a good take has.
We also make the same rhythm adjustments for guitars, bass, piano, and most synths. We can manually move notes around, change their length without effecting their pitch, and bring all instruments together for a unified sound. We can even replace a snare or other sound in percussion if the artist requests or it makes right sense in the mix.
If you are positive that certain sounds you have achieved for any particular instruments is exactly what you want, we suggest you print that and send it processed the way you want it. We will still be able to enhance the sound, we just won’t be able to change certain parameters you have locked in. If we find that we prefer the track to be unprocessed, we will ask you for it.
Compressors, EQs, Delays, and Reverbs can have an impact on the overall sound of the song. When you put all these elements together they need to fit correctly.
If you have requested to leave a processed track from your demo in the mix, that is okay because it is still focused on one track that we can place and enhance as necessary.
When you put these effects on your master bus, this is a global effect that will process every track in the project which can keep us from bringing out the overall sound that we need to for your project to be done correctly.
You can export them at 44.1, 48 or 96Khz and 24 or 32Bit
Which is best?
Which Sample Rate?
It’s an on going debate in the audio world whether we can actually hear a difference between 44, 48, 96, 192khz. So we can’t really give more input on that then there already is. But we do know that the higher sample rate you go, the bigger the file gets. So let’s just keep it between 44.1 and 96.
Which Bit?
32bit is better than 24bit as it allows for more headroom. But 24 bit is definitely sufficient.
Session stems are the audio files from your projects processed with all plugins and gear, then printed to audio files that you can listen to individually.
You can use stems to develop different performance tracks, maybe remove a single instrument easily without effecting the rest of the mix too much, providing audio to other artists for remixes, or make slight adjustments to your mix.
If you would like a full session stem of your project, be sure to select it when filling out our purchase form for your project.
1. Bass
2. Instruments
3. Drums
4. Vocals
When these four stems are imported into any DAW, they will recreate the sound of your final mix.
For Example, your vocal track in your session stem will have reverb printed to it that can not be removed.
Drums and other instruments will have effects printed to the audio files but all elements will be separated or grouped by request.
All the stems put together will create the sound of your final mix.
We include it with all our work to ensure that we can make your takes perfect with the same rates you pay every time. Most sites will charge by the track, but that can get pricey and you sacrifice quality to save, we don’t want to do that.
When we do vocal corrections we find it crucial to make every adjustment with the judgment of a musician listening to every line. We put in the time and effort to go through every line manually and adjust all necessary pitch and timing to make sure it fits the key and rhythm of the song the right way.
The results of this service makes a HUGE difference in the final sound of a project.
Small timing deviations that don’t happen in sync with everything performing can create unwanted rhythm and frequency problems. We include unlimited manual corrections to make sure you are happy with what you get back.
Just like our Pitch Correction services, we believe these sorts of adjustments come out better when they are judged by a musician to ensure it sounds natural and as intended. Automated corrections can sometimes put small things in weird places, or even make things TOO perfect sometimes.
We edit acoustic drums manually to make sure everything is tight, but still sounds natural and has that perfect swing and rhythm that a good take has.
We also make the same timing adjustments for guitars, bass, piano, and most synths. We can manually move notes around, change their length without effecting their pitch, and bring all instruments together for a unified sound. We can even replace a snare or other sound in percussion if the artist requests or it makes right sense in the mix.
When we do vocal corrections we find it crucial to make every adjustment with the judgment of a musician listening to every line. We put in the time and effort to go through every line manually and adjust all necessary pitch and timing to make sure it fits the key and rhythm of the song the right way.
The results of this service can make a HUGE difference in the final sound of a project.
We sometimes use it as a subtle pitch correction effect for background vocals and or instruments regardless if we do manual correction or not, just to tighten up the track.
But we also use it heavily as an effect if your lead vocal requires it for the song style. We’ll listen to your rough mix and read your notes about how to use autotune on your vocals if you need it as an effect.
We will schedule a time with you where we will send you a login that will stream out computers audio to your computer so you can listen to your song coming right our of the session.
While logged in, you will be able to communicate with us via chat box where you can request changes to the song in real time and A/B your requests to decide what you like best and actually use your engineer to make your song sound right in a fashion we find to be the most efficient and similar to actually being in a studio.
Just make sure you send us the entire session folder and not just the Pro Tools session file. Your audio files are stored in their own folder within your session folder.
Use this Tutorial on sending your Pro Tools Session to us: Click Here
Along with all our abilities to manually adjust timing for drums and other instruments, we can also replace drum sounds. This can come in handy when you discover after the fact that a mic was not placed correctly or you just know you really don’t like the snare you used.
In order for us to do this, the sound should be it’s own track or on when where it is not submersed in another sound.
If you are unsure about wether your percussion sounds can be replaced with what you have, feel free to CONTACT US so we can hear the file and let you know.
Comp background vocals: If you have four tracks that sing a backing harmony together, you can comp these to one track if you have the exact sound you want out of them. Just know that we will not be able to tune grouped vocals like that or manipulate them as much as we can most. Only comp backing vocals together like that if you are sure you want them to sound just like that, we will not be able to adjust three vocals relative to each other if you comp them.
NEVER comp a lead vocal with your backing vocals.
Comp SFX and Occasional Sounds: If you have 7 tracks that have random sounds or audio compliments, you can comp them together as tight as you can so long as they do not overlap. If you have 20 tracks with sounds but none of them overlap, comp them to one track and save yourself money when buying your mix.
If you want your song to be played on the radio, you will need to have a version that removed all the profanity so it can be played by stations.
We can remove profanity by replacing the unwanted words with silence, sound effects, or reversing them.
Another option is to also provide us with alternate takes that have different lines performed to be inserted in place of those words or phrases to make the clean version more radio friendly.
Just Mastering Questions
Make sure to remove Brick Wall Limiters.
If you have compressors and EQ on your mix, that’s fine as long as it’s not pushing the mix hot.
We want your mix to be between -3 and -6db. If it’s less than that, that’s ok as well.
For a 4-stem mastering, you would send us your bass track, all drums as one track, all instruments as one track, and all vocals as one track. We would then be able to manipulate these elements individually while mastering the overall mix.