The last stage in the editing process is mastering. Final audio remedies are performed to your mix throughout mastering which improve the sound of your recording.

Ever since the 1940s and 1950s, when magnetic tape displaced plain cutting, sound mastering has evolved into an art form. Many of those in the music business, however, still see it as black magic. Consider mastering to be the glue, lacquer, and gloss that ensures high-quality performance on any device, from small iPhone speakers to huge dance club amplifiers. Mastering connects the artist and the customer.

Mastering enables the recovery of screeches, clicks, and minor errors that were overlooked in the final mix. It guarantees sound consistency and homogeneity across many songs on an album.

In the end, mastering creates a clean and consistent sound throughout all of your audio.

Why master your song as long as the mix is finished ? Why not simply put it out there as it is ?

The easy response is that mastering is an important component of every professional artist's music release strategy. Mastering gives the track you worked on a final polish. It raises the quality of your audio to the very same standard as the thousands of other tracks on the market. When one of your songs is added to a collection, you wouldn't want it to abruptly become gentler or fuzzier than the others.

Here's why your music has to be mastered to stand out:

1.    Audio Restoration

This stage removes any undesired clicks, pops, or hisses from the original mix. It also aids in the correction of minor flaws that become apparent when unmastered audio is magnified.

2.    Stereo Enhancement

The spatial balance (left to right) of your audio is addressed through stereo enhancement. When done correctly, it broadens your mix and makes it sound larger. By concentrating on the low-end, it may also help tighten your center picture.

3.    Equalization

EQing fixes spectral mismatches and highlights areas that need to be highlighted. A well-balanced and proportionate master is desirable. This implies that no frequency range stands out. On any playback system, a well-balanced piece of music will sound great.

4.    Compression

Compression improves and rectifies your mix's amplitudes, keeping higher bandwidth in control whilst addressing quieter sections. This technique improves the audio's overall consistency and feel. Compression aids in the bonding of components that aren't as cohesive as they might be.

5.    Volume

The last step in the mastering procedure is typically a limiter, which is a kind of crusher. Limiters establish a maximum threshold and set the proper overall volume. Limitation makes the music loud enough to compete without enabling cutting, which may cause distortion.

6.    Finalization

Consider mastery to be the link between creativity and giving. Your song should sound full, consistent, competent, and harmonized after mastering. Excellent mastering enables you to distribute your music with security — no matter where it's performed — whether you're releasing it on the internet as a digital download or printing a large run-on record.

1. Bounce your track in WAV/AIFF 24 BITS/44.1KHz without dithering. You can check our article "Dithering : What you need to know".

2. Remove any limiter, compressor or effects on the master. You can keep the filters (HPF/LPF) and EQs. If you want to keep the EQs, we recommend to send 2 different versions so the engineer can chose which one sounds best.

3. Send us a track with a peak level between -6dB and -3dB. Be sure that there is no clipping on the track. All your individual tracks must be « green ». If some are peaking, please lower the volume of the « red » ones. To keep the dynamic of your individual tracks, we recommend to lower their volume at the same time and then the volume of the master.

4. Try to keep your mix clean and dynamic. Keep in mind that a good mastering depends on a good mixing.

5. Send us reference track(s).

6. Name correctly your track(s).