Keep your bounces at the same sample rate and bit depth as your session. Dithering and sample rate conversion can alter the integrity of your audio so leave it to the mastering engineer to make those decisions and conversions as (s)he should have superior, specialist hardware/software to do this for you (if needed.)
DO apply Type 1 dither to your bounces (no noise shaping) but bounce back to the same bit depth as your source material. Please check back for more info, I'll do a separate blog on why you should be doing this.
Leave off any limiting and mix/output bus eq and compression. If you mix into a plugin chain on your mix/output bus then send me a version with this on for reference but does your mix fall apart without it all on?? If so, work harder to get your mix sounding closer to how you want it to sound without those plugins as ultimately, the resulting master will be better.
Leave an ideal -6dB headroom so I can do my thing. Squared off waveforms and limited masters will not allow full manipulation of the audio frequency range in a way that is pleasing to the ear and will result in less than perfect, somewhat muted results.
If in doubt, contact me and ask for a mix appraisal. I can give feedback on your mix to allow you to tweak certain elements in order to maximise it's potential at the mastering stage.
Maselec MLA-3 Multiband Analogue Mastering Limiter
Comments