Editing

Just like we want to give the mastering engineer a full sound to work with, it is just as important to give them a full file start with. Don't try to cut the ending off at the shortest possible point. When you play it on your system, before mastering you very well may be missing a tiny amount of sound that will become very apparent once the mastering tools are invoked. Do not try to trim the end close, but rather leave a bit of silence and let the mastering engineer do the cut. The same thing applies for the beginning of the recording. Do not trim the intro space right up to the very first sign of sound; let the mastering engineer do that, it is part of what they do, and there is good reason for it. It may be that the cut is done at a point that is not a 'zero crossing' point and after the mastering tools are invoked that indiscernible click could become very evident. Let the engineer handle all the cuts and fades. What you can do is make sure every track that is not playing is either cut or faded out before the end of the song. Every track that is 'live' will induce some noise. This tiny bit of noise, when compounded on multiple tracks and ran through mastering effects can become very noticeable. This would also apply for the beginning of the song; try to make these as quiet as possible. These steps will help insure that you get the best mastering job possible.

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