Audio mastering is the final step in the audio creation process. It takes place after your final mixes are done, and just before the release and distribution of the finished work.

Starting with a finished mix, the mastering engineer applies techniques to smooth dynamics, increase presence, heighten clarity, and improve listenability while sweetening the sound of your music.

When working with a musical album, we also make sure each track is even in volume and exists as a cohesive part of the whole.

A mastering engineer also typically performs any file conversions or special masters necessary for physical media production and digital distribution.

Mastering is an essential step in making your audio sound professional and competitive when compared to other artists. So much so, that if you’re recording and mixing in a home studio you can achieve very professional results on your own, simply by picking the right mastering engineer to work with.

Mastering should be performed on any material being released to the public, as the differences in quality between a final mix and a finished master can be significant. You can hear those differences for yourself by listening to my before/after portfolio, or contacting me for a free test master.

The quality of your final mix has a big impact on the improvements that are possible during mastering. That’s why I run a detailed check on every mix that comes into the mastering studio for free, and offer recommendations if necessary, before I agree to book a project.

Here are some guidelines to think about when preparing your music for mastering:

1) When mixing, you should be aiming to get your mix to sound exactly how you want it to sound in every respect, with the only exception being the final volume level.

It’s always a good idea to get your mixes as excellent as possible before mastering, as waiting to fix something during mastering can often lead to results that aren’t as good as they could be.

2) Make sure not to over-compress your material.  The loudest points in your mix should peak at around -6 dB on your meters.

3) Your mix should retain musical dynamics and a clear, open sound, meaning if your track sounds smashed and looks like a squared off rectangle, you might be over-compressing.  Be particularly careful of master bus compression: a little can be tasty, but it is very easy to overdo it.

4) Don’t apply any sample rate conversion or bit rate dithering before mastering your music.  Meaning, if you record at 48k/24 bit, you should send those mixes at that same original recorded resolution. And, make sure that “dither” box is left unchecked when you export.  Conversions add digital noise to your music that doesn’t sound good when amplified during the mastering process.

5) Don’t use your cell phone, bluetooth speaker, or built-in computer speakers as a primary evaluation tool when checking your mixes or masters. These will not give you an accurate sense of what’s going on, and will lead to chasing ghosts during the music production process. The higher the quality of your listening environment, the higher quality your creative notes can be.

6) Mixing only on headphones can lead to overcompensating with your panning and reverb choices.  Try to use both speakers and headphones during music production, not one or the other.

7) If you’re DIYing a project, check your mixes on at least 3-5 different playback systems, on both headphones and speakers, before sending to mastering.  This will allow you to catch problems that your room acoustics or equipment could be masking.

8) Check your mixes in mono, making sure your music sounds substantially similar in both mono and stereo. Be careful of instruments disappearing when moving from stereo to mono.

9) Record in at least 24 bit, if possible.

If you have specific requests as to the final sound of a project, you are always welcome to submit two versions to me: a compressed/effected file done yourself as a reference track, and an uncompressed file as the version for me to work with.

I use a wide variety of professional quality mastering equipment in my studio, in a mixture of both analog and digital styles.

I encourage you to judge my work based on how it sounds, rather than on the gear used to make it. Listening to my before/after portfolio, and contacting me for a free test master, are both great ways to do this.

Every project requires a unique touch, and so a test master is a much more accurate way for you to evaluate what I can do for your music, than a gear list would be.

You can hear the difference for yourself by contacting me for a free test master, at no cost to you. Most of the artists I work with don’t want their music to sound cheap.

To put it another way:

Would you trust a computer algorithm to write, record, or mix your music on its own?

I would hesitate on that, personally, because these are all creative acts that require context. Knowledge of music history, music theory, aesthetics, intuition, and current trends are all necessary to arrive at a convincing and intentional creative statement.

Mastering is not just the act of turning a dial up to raise the volume of your music.  Choosing which mastering tools are appropriate to use, and knowing exactly how far to go in using them requires context, judgement, musical experience, imagination, and an artists ear to do well. These are all things an algorithm can’t fully duplicate just yet.

An algorithmic mastering service is an adaptive preset, which puts your music through the same bland cookie cutter process that many other artists are also using simultaneously.  I think we can all do better by keeping a creative human in the loop, at least as long as humans are the ones listening.

I encourage you to judge the differences for yourself. Contact me for a free test master, and compare my results with an algorithmic service’s offerings, to see which you prefer.

Well, since you ask, I’ve actually written a book on this subject!

It’s called DIY Music: A Practical Field Guide, and it’s got many useful tips on using the home music studio that are focused towards the DIY musician.  You can check it out in my shop.