Delivery Checklist
Loudness, peaks, silence, naming and metadata, all checked before anything leaves the building.
Related
Most deliveries come back for reasons that have nothing to do with music: a space in the file name, a master two LU louder than the reference, half a second of noise at the tail. None of it is audible in the studio, and all of it breaks the recipient's batch script.
Get the specification in writing
Platform, format, sample rate, bit depth, loudness target, naming rule and deadline belong in an email or ticket before work starts. A client who asks only for a master often remembers the instrumental and the no-vocal version after the files arrive. Vague specifications cost more in rework. Copy them into the session notes and tick them off at delivery instead of explaining later.
Loudness and true peak
Loudness follows a measurement, not a fader or a feeling. Streaming services commonly target around minus fourteen LUFS integrated, broadcast follows EBU R128 at minus twenty-three LUFS or ATSC A/85 at minus twenty-four LKFS, and true peak should stay below minus one dBTP to leave room for lossy encoding. Measure integrated loudness over the whole track, not just the chorus, and ask whether the job is a single or an album.
| Item | Pass condition | How to check |
|---|---|---|
| Integrated loudness | Platform or contract target, whole track | Loudness meter, full playback |
| True peak | Below minus one dBTP | True-peak meter with oversampling |
| Head and tail | No long lead-in, digital silence at the end | Zoom into the waveform |
| Naming | Project, version, rate, bit depth | Batch check, no spaces |
| Metadata | Title, writer, copyright, ISRC | Player and distribution backend |
Tails, names and metadata
A millisecond or two of lead-in is enough; longer makes players feel slow to start. The tail should reach digital silence, with no reverb chopped off and no noise floor left behind. Loops need a tail that joins the head, ideally with an aligned version supplied alongside. Use only letters, digits, underscores and hyphens in file names, and put project, version, sample rate and bit depth in the name rather than the word 'final'. Fill in title, writer, copyright and ISRC, and note tempo and key in the readme. Once the rule is set, case and separators admit no exceptions.
Do not check on the wrong system
Use a loudness meter rather than guessing, a true-peak meter rather than sample peak, and the reference track supplied by the recipient for A/B. The common failure is a limiter pushed too hard, so the file sounds flatter once the platform turns it down; another is checking only the WAV and never the AAC. A checklist does not slow you down. It keeps the rework on your side of the handoff instead of in the recipient's inbox.
Listen in the library
All tracks from midicn-lib — inline badge is the license tier (C1 commercial / C2 non-commercial / C3 study only).
Along the same line
Sources
- ITU-R BS.1770 与 EBU R128 关于节目响度与真峰值测量的建议书
- Spotify 与 Apple Music 官方帮助中心关于交付规格与响度归一化的说明
- DDEX 关于数字发行元数据与 ISRC 的标准