It is always worthwhile saying a few things about ‘the mix’, and looking at a couple of well worn myths. “We’ll fix it in the mix” is one of those often heard phrases that is now happily exposed as a myth and in most circles consigned to the joke notice board where it belongs!
The other one is “We’ll fix it in the mastering!”. Same deal. It just doesn’t happen. We can always improve on what we’re given, but nobody can completely fix a substandard mix.
Your final masterpiece can only be as good as the recording and final mix allows and, although it can usually be improved by at least a grade or so, a C- mix is only likely to produce a B- master. A B+ mix will hopefully produce an A+ master, if you get the idea.
So, get the best mix possible and assume that the mix is as good as it’s going to get. Then everyone will be pleasantly surprised with the final outcome.
Avoid using any normalising or “finalising” processors in the mixing stage and leave things like dithering to the mastering suite. It’s also a good idea to not ‘top and tail’ or apply the fade ins and outs until the mastering stage. We can often make good use of the silence before the track starts to analyse noise prints. Having the spaces at either end of the track always allow some adjustment for later decisions about fades which can be useful too.

If you have any concerns or doubts, or want an independent evaluation of the pre master mix, we are happy to critically evaluate and make comments and suggestions.
A reference recording (perhaps a track from a CD you particularly like the sound of) is always a welcome idea to help us quickly identify what you’re hoping to achieve.

Quote: “Don’t worry, we’ll fix it in the marketing!”