Hi all my name is Barry and I am a mastering engineer based in London and operate a small online mastering studio with reasonable pricing. I thought I would write a short passge to explain how best to prepare files for the mastering procedure (or if you do DIY mastering at home).
The best situation for most mastering engineers is to have a 24 bit file at the sample rate of your software project.This can then be dithered down to 16bit during the process.
Do not use a limiter on your master output when bouncing out the file as increasing the level to commercial standards will be dealt with during the process.
Also ensure that the output does not exceed your digital outputs capability i.e. 0dBFS (no clipping). Especially when you check you remove the limiter you should check for this. It can be seen in an audio file as a square/flat line on a drum transient. This is not a good situation and should be avoided.
Also ensure you only create .aiff or the .wav file and no MP3, wma or ogg vorbis as these are compressed formats that have had audio information lost without any possibility of recovery.
All the best with your music and remember I do free preview as well.
Have a great day everyone
Barry
SafeandSound Mastering
online masteringmasteringmastering drum and bass 
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