Every song that is released commercially gets mastered first.

You’ve recorded your songs and are feeling confident about the mixes. Now it’s time to release your music to the world.  But wait… there’s one more thing to consider; mastering.  The term “mastering” gets thrown around with out proper clarification. Do not let the term mastering scare you as it essentially a very easy concept to understand. By most definitions, this means you are sending your stereo mix down to a Mastering Engineer, a professional who’s sole job is to do just that, master your music. They have finely tuned their listening capability to the sound of industry standards, and know how to enhance a song to its highest level.

When a song or album is mastered correctly, it can bring a whole new dimension to your music.

When a track is mastered, this process will include, EQing, compression, and stereo width, with touches of reverb and distortion (the good kind of course).  Certainly it will be much louder, but mastering can really bring out certain dynamics that were hidden or weak in your mix previously. The goal of a proper master is to sound consistent and clear on a wide range of listening environments, and this could mean the radio, studio monitors, bluetooth speakers and even ear buds.

Our most-loved piece of analog outboard gear for mastering is the API 2500 Stereo Buss Compressor.

Anything you hear on the radio and television has been mastered in some form or another.

For any artist or musician who takes their craft seriously, having your music mastered by a professional is a worthy investment. Although the job of mastering is essentially making your music sound better, this doesn’t mean a poorly mixed song will instantly sound better.  There is still much to consider with the production and mixing process. For more information on how to get the most out of your master, follow our pre-master guidelines on our master my song page.

Have a second pair of ears to listen to your mixes!

When you hire a mastering engineer, they will be listening from a completely different context from the creator, which in most cases will be yourself or your band. It never hurts to have a second opinion.  Be aware of your engineer’s background and the work they typically do.  An engineer who works primarily on rock albums may not be the right fit for an R&B or Hip-Hop project.  Shop around for a mastering engineer that is right for your music.

A mastering engineer will make the audio volume throughout your album consistent.

A second important aspect of mastering is in the context of a whole album. When you are producing an album, you have to take in consideration a variety of factors including consistent volume of the album and individual tracks, fade-ins/outs and the order of the songs. All of which is done with the mastering engineer.

Looking to hire a mastering engineer?

We hope we’ve shed some helpful light on the topic of “why is mastering important?” If you need help with mastering your next pop/rock, R&B, hip-hop or EDM track, consider hiring us for the job.  We have worked with a wide variety of artists across the globe ranging all types of musical genres.

Get in contact with us today about mastering and the rest of our services.