Mastering for submissions

[Russell Landwehr]

Also, to make sure you are providing the best quality MP3 you can, do some research on the encoding process and find an encoder that will work at high quality.

I use Steinberg Wavelab. It has a setting where the encoding process can be done quickly at low quality or slower at a higher quality... (the bit rate is the same for both, the software just makes sure to encode at a higher quality)

[Len911]

What Russell says makes sense. The Taxi player would be for "streaming" over the internet, and I'm pretty sure the screeners aren't going to listen over the internet, but to the actual mp3 file you send through a media player such as i-tunes, or quicktime player or Windows media player. I think they would also forward the actual mp3 file and not an internet link to your song.

A 16-bit wav file has more resolution than any mp3! Usually you would dither a 24bit or 32bit wav or aiff down to a 16bit and then render to an mp3. The sample rates would also need to be either 44.1Khz
or 48Khz.

For $55.41, there's a Sonnox Codec Toolbox, with a few features you may find useful.

"The NMR indicator (Noise-to-Mask Ratio) indicates possible audible differences between input and the codec output, so you can adjust the bit-rate for your mix. The Overs indicator shows if the process of encoding will introduce any clipping, giving you the chance to reduce the overall mix level slightly. The invaluable 'Clip Safe' feature will ensure clean encoded files, as the software auto-compensates for any overs during the encode process. Metadata, such as artist, track name and artwork, can easily be added to your files to be displayed on your mp3 player or iTunes."

http://www.sonnoxplugins.com/pub/plugin ... olbox.html

[mojobone]

Usually you would dither a 24bit or 32bit wav or aiff down to a 16bit and then render to an mp3. The sample rates would also need to be either 44.1Khz
or 48Khz.

For maximum fidelity, you should be rendering your MP3s directly (with dither enabled) from your hi-res (24-bit or higher) masters. Not every software player is capable of this, but if you work with hi-res files this is the accepted 'best practice', according to every mastering engineer I've consulted. At this point, 16-bit 44.1kHz files are for CD reproduction only.