For each final mixed and mastered track of your project, you need a 44.1kHz 16-bit WAV file for digital distribution upload and potential physical media printing. I won’t delve into the digital audio concepts of 44.1kHz (sample rate), 16-bit (bit depth), and WAV file, but any professional engineer can properly deliver this specification for you. This is the file people will hear when they stream your song. Carefully give a final listen to all files for errors like pops, clicks, and distortion. Your mastering engineer will hopefully catch any of these things, but mistakes can happen and files can be corrupted in transfer on rare occasions, creating issues that weren’t present when the engineer heard the finished file.
In addition to your final 44.1kHz 16-bit WAV file of the full mix (the standard version for release), it's beneficial to obtain the following WAV versions from your engineer:
Essential: Instrumental Version To be eligible for potential opportunities like Sync Licensing placements you will need both the Vocal and Instrumental versions of your records. It’s also useful to have instrumental versions for your own uses, such as in the background of content about the song or project.
Essential: Show Mix If you perform with a backing track, ensure your engineer provides a show mix tailored for live performances.
Optional/Essential: Clean Edit A version with any curse words removed. This is only relevant and essential if you have radio play and sync licensing opportunities.
Recommended: Cutdowns Create 60-second edits of your songs for social media content. Additionally, consider creating loopable short versions so your posts can run on a perfect loop. If you work in sync licensing, there are times 60, 30 and even 15 second versions will be asked of you.
Recommended: Stems While not completely necessary, if you plan to make use of a recording for years to come you may want to ask your mixing engineer to create stems of their project file for you. Digital audio project files can fall out of date as software updates over the years make certain FX or even full projects incompatible. The only way to guarantee you can return to your project as you left it for alternate mixes and edits in the future is to create stems. You may need different edits in the future for live show backing tracks, sync licensing opportunities, remixes and more.
Recommended Stem Groupings
Ask your mixing engineer to create stems in the following fashion. Obviously there will be some variance depending on the actual instrumentation of your song but this will send them in the right direction.
Lead vocals
Background vocals (BGVs)
Sound effects (SFX)
Horns
Strings
Keys
Guitars
Percussion
Drums
Bass
Click
Guide
This article is an excerpt from my eBook “Our Own Way: A guide for independent musicians to distribute our recordings and maximize our royalties”. Click here to get your copy 👉📘. If you’re a beginner to intermediate independent recording artist, this ebook guide offers you the essential foundations for successfully releasing your recordings. You’ll learn how to distribute and promote your releases then bring home the maximum royalty-per-stream. I’ve also included my Sync Licensing Blueprint, a highly requested topic that I’ve taught at workshops and through social media content.
