Delivery QC
Delivery errors are measurable; another listen will not catch them
Related
Rework rarely starts with the music
On a final listen your attention sits on the music, so the things you miss are exactly the ones you cannot hear: two extra seconds of silence at the end, a true peak a fraction over, stems that do not sum to the mix, a filename with a space in it. None of these makes a client reject the track artistically, but each one sends it back.
The checklist
- [ ] Head and tail: no stray silence at the start, the fade ends cleanly, no tail is cut off
- [ ] Peaks: true peak below the target ceiling, with at least 1 dB of margin
- [ ] Loudness: integrated and short-term values close to the platform target, no sudden jumps between sections
- [ ] Mono: low end and lead vocal hold up, phase check passes
- [ ] Edits: scan every cut for clicks, pops and DC offset
- [ ] Stems: all stems sum back to the mix, with gain offsets documented
- [ ] Specs: sample rate and bit depth match the session; never upsample 44.1 kHz to 96 kHz and call it high resolution
- [ ] Naming: project_title_version_stem_tempo_date, ASCII, zero-padded versions
- [ ] Metadata: title, author, ISRC, copyright line, tool and version
- [ ] Attachments: delivery note, licence files, contact and date
Three numbers to measure
True peak, integrated loudness and the short-term range. Measure with ITU-R BS.1770 and EBU R128, and take the target from the platform or the client spec rather than from your ear. Peak margin matters because transcoding changes inter-sample peaks. Short-term loudness shows whether a section suddenly gets louder; a single integrated number hides that. Write the measured values into the delivery note so the client does not have to ask.
What the checklist cannot cover
The checklist proves you looked, not that the work is good. Arrangement, timbre and taste are not on it. Rights completeness needs a separate clearance pass. Plug-in compatibility has to be tested on the recipient's machine. If the source already contains artefacts, inspection finds them but cannot repair them. Test first and listen second, or the music will carry your ear away.
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 响度与真峰值测量方法，由国际电信联盟发布。
- EBU R128 节目响度规范，由欧洲广播联盟发布。
- 流媒体与母带交付规范，来自平台与行业组织公开文件。