Monthly Archives: September 2021

The process of exporting or ‘bouncing’ audio files is usually pretty straightforward. But it can also get complicated and time-consuming depending on what files are needed after a recording session is complete. As a studio that offers mixing and mastering services, our clients often leave with a radio-ready ‘master’ file of their song and that’s about as simple as it gets. But even then, if the mixing process included a lot of production and fx, it can take a few minutes to render and export a single high-quality master.

There are plenty of other projects that come through the studio whose goal is only to record as much as possible with their time and work on the mixing and mastering later. At the end of those sessions, instead of exporting a finished product on a single audio file, we export what are known as ‘stems’ which are separate files with different parts of a song (vocals, guitar, drums, etc.) on their own files. These stems can be loaded into audio editing software later for the editing, mixing, and mastering process; and this is also a great way to back up data for a recording session. With more files being exported, it’s obviously more time-consuming and demands more organization to keep track of everything and make it as easy as possible to reassemble those files when they are worked on later.

Sometimes a client may even prefer to have ALL the ‘takes’ of everything recorded in the session so they can sit and sort through everything, making sure they select the absolute best recordings and/or ensure that they have plenty of options if they want to alter anything about the song later in production. Again, this can take additional time and it becomes even more important to label and organizes things nice and neatly.

Not to mention the time it can take to upload and send multiple high-quality files online…

Are we belaboring the point that exporting audio takes time? Yeah, guilty. But the real point is to shed some light on how the exporting process affects the quality of audio files, and that the organization of those files will make someone’s job (hopefully ours 😊😜) a lot easier later in the process.

Be sure to carve out enough time at the end of a recording session to get the best files in the best way. Usually around 20 minutes will do it, but the more productive you are in the session, the more you should think ahead to the exporting process.

Over the summer we’ve been working on a wonderful film called ‘On Our Way’. We had writer, director, and star of the film, Sophie Lane Curtis, in the studio along with her co-star, Micheal Richardson, to record some ADR. ADR is ‘Automated Dialogue Replacement’ which is dialogue in a film that is re-recorded in the post-production phase. It can be a tricky process to recreate and dub a line of dialogue so that it syncs up with the timing and feel of the original on-screen performance. And because the re-recording takes place in a studio, it can sometimes be challenging to avoid the feeling of manufactured acting. But Sophie and Micheal were able to adapt and together we kept things patient, creative, and fun throughout the session. As we finish the mixing and sound design for the film, stay tuned for more details on the release of ‘On Our Way’.

One question we get a lot in sessions is, “Is it okay to take a picture?”.

Is it okay??? Heck yeah it’s okay! In fact, we’d prefer you to go gangbusters on photos while you’re in the studio. Grab some video content while you’re at it. Obviously the most valuable thing you can do in a recording studio is… record… but the SECOND most valuable thing might be getting visual content. Images and videos are great ways to promote your project on social media (some might say it’s an absolute must!) and it’s also good visibility for the studio. Tag us @mirrortonestudios and let us know your handle so we can tag you in our content as well.

Whether it’s a celeb photo op, your first time in the studio, behind the scenes of your next passion project, or you’re coming in as a hired talent for commercial voice over, we encourage you to take a photo (or two or ten) before you leave.