Release Prep: Final Bounce and Master Checks

Do one final bounce pass before mastering. Listen to the intro, first drop, breakdown, final drop, and outro without touching the arrangement. If a section still asks for production decisions, it is not a mastering problem yet.

Create labeled exports for clean, extended, instrumental, and pre-master versions where relevant. Keep the pre-master conservative enough that later feedback or label notes do not force you to rebuild the session.

After the master, compare loudness, low-end shape, and stereo width against two references in the same playback chain. The goal is not to copy the reference, but to know which differences are intentional.