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

Starting with a finished mix, mastering engineers apply 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 make sure each track flows together in the manner you intend, and exists as a cohesive part of a whole.

Mastering engineers also typically perform any file conversions or special masters necessary for physical media production and digital distribution.

Mastering is an essential step in making your music sound professional and competitive when compared to other artists.

Mastering should ideally be performed on any musical work being released to the public, as the differences in quality between a final mix and a finished master recording can be significant.

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 my mastering studio for free, and offer recommendations if necessary, before I agree to book a project.

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

Here are some guidelines to think about when preparing your music for mastering. If you’re hiring a mixing engineer, they should be taking care of many of these for you, in collaboration with your creative direction:

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.

2) Make sure not to over-compress your material, and watch your loudness.  The loudest points in your mix should peak at around -6 dB on your meters, before submitting to mastering.

3) Your mix should retain musical dynamics and a clear, open sound. Be particularly careful of master bus compression during mixing: 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) Avoid using phone speakers or built-in computer speakers when checking your mixes or masters. These tiny speakers can’t reproduce bass frequencies accurately, so any notes generated using them will be inaccurate as well.

6) Mixing only on headphones can lead to overcompensating with your panning, compression, 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 submitting 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 switching 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’re 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 specialized, mastering-specific equipment in my studio, in a combination of analog and digital styles.

Everything from multi-thousand dollar analog compressors and equalizers (some of which are custom-built), to reference quality digital-to-analog converters, and other digital tools.

I encourage you to judge my work based on how it sounds, rather than on the tools used to make it. Contacting me for a free test master is a great way to do this!

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

Details on my rates can be found on my pricing page.

While algorithmic mastering has its place and can be a cheaper option, most of the artists I work with don’t want their music to sound cheap, and they also prefer collaborating with a fellow creative to make something handmade and very special.

I think handmade and special is what your music deserves, given the time and effort put into making it.

An algorithmic mastering service is just an adaptive preset, which puts your music through the same vanilla, cookie-cutter processing that many other artists are also using.

I think we can all do better by keeping a creative human in the loop and making something handmade together, at least as long as humans are the ones doing the listening.

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

I maintain a free online resource for artists to learn more about music production and independent music-making! We talk about a wide range of music and arts-related topics over there.

It’s called DIY Music Guide.