If the Formatting Fits

Even after the mastering is done, the ability to get your CD out into the right places and to have it meeting the necessary standards still has to be a priority.  There is more than one way to get your recording into the right place, but the engineering and technology has to come first in order to get it into the right arena.

The general concept to keep in mind with each of the areas that your recording formats can and should be is that each of them is based on two things.  The first is the way in which the mastering is done with the instruments, allowing each one of them to blend together with the lows, mids and highs in the right places.  What this means is that too much bass in one area is just enough in the other.  The second consideration is the volume levels that are used.  The overall volume format that you use will be different according to where you decide to put your music.

The way to follow each of these formats is to test it through your monitor speakers.  This will give you an idea of the high end and low end sounds and how they are impacting the song.  You can also look into industry standards and concepts with some of the following formats.

CDs – The major capability of CDs is to be able to create your own unique sound and volume consideration.  There is an industry standard for CDs in terms of volumes and mix; however, you have the choice of whether to follow this.  Within this, you can master things according to your style.  For example, if you play rock music, you will want the rhythms and the bass to be slightly higher on the low end than they would be in a country piece.

MP3s and Downloads – Thanks to digital media, there are entirely new ways to listen to music.  With this are also different volume checks, standards and mixes that are incorporated.  This is important to follow because most of the digital media that is downloaded will be going onto a computer or a smaller digital device.  This makes it so that the mix is different, specifically with the need to have low ends on a computer or not to have the high ends taking over the smaller speakers.

Radio – The radio has a completely different standard than any other type of format.  This is because the music must be processed through the radio's player and then into the speakers that move into a home stereo.  Typically, volume control for radios is going to be slightly louder with mixes in the low ends being more quiet than the high end.  This allows for the format to be played on anything from an alarm clock to a car radio without a bad mix.

Of course, more formatting options are available, all which specialize in the volume control options as well as the high end and low end mixes.  You can easily find your options through looking at the industry standards or looking at plug ins in your software that may already have the current industries recommendations as a plug-in.  When it is time to change your wave file into a format, you will want to make sure that you know the formatting that fits.