I'm quite a novice at mastering, but i was just wondering, when mastering, are individual tracks of the recording, mastered first then mixed down? or is the song mixed down and then mastered?... or is sort of a combination of both?

once again if the questions sounds stupid...is because im pretty new to it

When mixing down, whats the best format? (e.g. .ape, .wav, .m4a, .flac)

Also, how's Izotope ozone for mastering?


any hints and tips to set me off on the right direction is also much appreciated

thanks

The song is mixed down from the tracks and then mastered. The best format is an uncompressed one at the same sample rate as the tracks, usually I receive mixes as wav or aif files. Also it's best to keep them as 24 bit fixed or 32 bit floating point.

Ozone is a decent limiter and has a good dithering option (mbit). Other than that it has many limitations. There really isn't a single plug-in IMHO that can be used for mastering. It takes a combination of gear, plugs, but in particular good monitoring, a good room, and great ears.
_________________
Tom Volpicelli
The Mastering House Inc.
http://www.masteringhouse.com
CD Mastering and Media Production Services

agreed to everything said, and thank you for the help

My pleasure!
_________________
Tom Volpicelli
The Mastering House Inc.
http://www.masteringhouse.com
CD Mastering and Media Production Services