What is mastering?
Mastering is the final stage where a finished mix is adjusted for where it will be released: streaming services, video, CD and so on. You shape the overall tone with EQ, manage dynamics and peaks with compressors and limiters, and aim for a state that does not fall apart across a wide range of playback systems.
How it differs from mixing
In a mix you can adjust individual tracks such as vocals, drums and guitars. Mastering mainly deals with the stereo mix those tracks have been summed into. Fixes like raising only the vocal are difficult, so problems between parts are best solved by going back to the mix.
More than just raising loudness
Mastering is often thought of as the stage that makes things louder, but its purpose is to produce a final version ready for release. You check loudness, True Peak, frequency balance, stereo width, and the start and end of the track. For a release with several songs, you also even out the perceived level and the gaps between them.
Check against the destination
Streaming services may adjust loudness at playback, so finishing loud does not guarantee it will always play back loud. Rather than chasing a single number, check for distortion or unnatural compression on smartphones, headphones and speakers.
Keep the pre-export states as well
Along with the heavily processed final version, keeping a version with the final limiter bypassed and one at a slightly lower level makes it easier to respond to changed delivery specs or revisions. Record the project and the export settings too, so you can return to the mix before the processing was stacked up.
Try it in your browser
If you want to try the loudness adjustment workflow before getting into specialist settings, you can use tadaoto’s audio loudness adjustment tool. Audio is processed inside the browser and is never sent to an external server.
