It depends on the mastering engineer. I would love to get the mixes one week early to listen to them to see how they are mixed and also see if there are any problems with the mixes. Some others may not want to do this before you arrive. I guess the best way would be to call the mastering engineer and ask him what he wants to do.

Thomas W. Bethel wrote: It depends on the mastering engineer. I would love to get the mixes one week early to listen to them to see how they are mixed and also see if there are any problems with the mixes. Some others may not want to do this before you arrive. I guess the best way would be to call the mastering engineer and ask him what he wants to do.

I second that. Sometimes, I ask for the audio material in advance.

Me third! Me third!

Whenever I get the chance, I'll have loaded it into the DAW and auditioned by the time the client arrives. That being "the easy part" it takes less time when there's no one around. And then you know your files are okay also - I've had a session or two (or a dozen) that the source was damaged, corrupt or otherwise unusable. Not a good time to find out.

If I can, I like to get an idea about what i'm working with before the session. It's not always possible, but it's nice when it is. If I hear something that can be a bit of a problem, then i'll ask for the rest to see if they might have the same issue and if it can be resolved before the session. Most ME's I know don't mind doing this at all. Just make it easy for the ME, like burn an Audio CD and drop it off or mail it. That way at the end of their day, they can just pop it in the CD player and not have to jump through hoops like downloading and such.