Thinking about send my new track of for professional mastering, got some questions

[cappone]

So im thinking about sending my track of for some professional mastering. It is a progressive house song which is almost ready to go. Just finishing up the last pieces and mixing it togheter. Currently i got a pre-made device on my mainbus called ''punchy dance master'' straight from ableton which makes it sound better and limits the peak to -0.30db, it is made for mastering and mixing. Should i remove this and let the mastering engineer do it all? Should I even have any device on my main bus? Is it ok to have a compressor there also? Im not so good when it comes down to mastering and mixing in general so maybe these questions are dumb lol.

Thanks!

[Kwal]

you should never have anything on the master channel before sending to a mastering engineer

you should also avoid mastering presets as all music is different and a preset can't do the best job possible because its not tailored to your track

you should PM Tarekith, he's a member here and has been at it for a long time.

http://forum.djtechtools.com/member.php?u=31541

[ImNotDedYet]

Tarekith actually has a nice set of guidelines for any tracks he masters, and those are on his website. Following that would likely be pretty close to SOP for any mastering engineer.

[Tarekith]

In general we ask that you send files that have not already been limited or "self-mastered", it really limits (no pun intended) what we can do when you've already taken out so much dynamic range. Some mixers will use a compressor for color on the master channel, and as long as it's not squashing things to shit, that's probably ok to leave.

Talk to your mastering engineer and see what they say though, some people work different. If anything send over a version with the processors and one without, then the ME can choose which one they want to use.

[cappone]

Thank you for the answer! You really made up my mind! I do guess though that putting compressors etc is only a rule for master bus and not individual tracks?
I have not really decided either where to master my track but i could give you guys a little preview to let you know what it sounds like, maybe my song is so bad it aint worth paying money to make it sound more professional lol?. I visited your page Tarekith and im actually considering it, im not completely sure where to go yet though but you are on my list !

[the_bastet]

The only thing that should ever be on your master channel are visualizers that have no effect on sound.

Hit up tarekith.

[cappone]

I got my ''mastering preset'' on master track (which will be removed before mastering) but when i turn it off it sounds 10x worse. Should i consider mixing it greater to make it sound how i want before mastering or should i let the mastering process take care of it?

I will contact Tarektih also.

[the_bastet]

What DAW are you using? post a screenshot of your bus chain.

[cappone]

I'm using Ableton. After some mixing it do sound better though. I can upload 2 different versions on soundcloud and post here as a private link in message if someone would like to give me some feedback. Will post a screenshot in a second too.
Got the mix peaking at -6DB as highest now too so it's starting to get ready.

[the_bastet]

If you keep your channel levels below -6db, your master will start to sound cleaner. Dont forget to sidechain and frequency mod.