Mixdown and Master recording

Dom Franco · Post by **Dom Franco** » 17 Aug 2021 12:47 pm

For many years now I have been using a Pro quality CD recorder for master recordings. (years before that 1/4' reel to reel master tape recorders)

I have about 1000 CD disks and storing them and locating a particular song is a nightmare.

I would like to start mixing and mastering my studio projects to MP3s to store on a computer... is this practical?

What do you guys use to store your completed songs?
What format? How do you play back and share files or songs on the internet? or send out as demos?

Thanks for the help in advance.
Dom

Jim Pollard · Post by **Jim Pollard** » 17 Aug 2021 1:11 pm

I mix and master on my computer and export to the highest quality .wav file it's capable of and store that. Then export to other less high quality formats as needed for web, demo. Whatever. You can't take a low fidelity file format and make it better but you can always export a hi fidelity to something more convenient.

Tony Prior · Post by **Tony Prior** » 18 Aug 2021 1:40 am

yes practical, almost mandatory these days.

I have a few backup drives, I would recommend a lone USB - SSD external drive, 500 G or 1 TB. They are the size of credit cards ! Won't break the bank .

Back that one up as well.

My friend told me the other day that we can now get a 1 TB-SD card , but, will your PC support it is the question.

Jack Stoner · Post by **Jack Stoner** » 18 Aug 2021 2:13 am

I master using Isotope Ozone. I export the mastered project (song) as a 16 bit 44.1Khz wav file (Redbook CD quality audio file). If you save it as an MP3 it is "something less than full fidelity" and if you convert it back to a wav file its will still be at whatever fidelity the MP3 was. If you need an MP3 it can easily be made from the wav file.

A wav file is approx 10MB per minute so use that as a guide to how big storage you need. Large USB connected drives are relatively inexpensive at this time. I think I saw a 5TB drive for under $100 at Costco.

Bob Hoffnar · Post by **Bob Hoffnar** » 18 Aug 2021 12:55 pm

You might want to get everything off those CD's ASAP. They deteriorate over time. Not a stable format. I store my archives on multiple hard drives and online with google drive and Backblaze. Also like everybody else said don't use MP3 for a master.