Mastering is the final creative process in the production of a piece of music.
Before we even start thinking about mastering, we've gone through quite a production journey: the song is written, recorded, and mixed to the best of your abilities.
By now, you should know how to create great mixes by reading my best-selling book, Step By Step Mixing.
When I talk about mastering, I'm ultimately talking about one thing:
Taking an already great sounding mix and making it the absolute best it can be.
Basically, if the recording is capturing all the tracks together to make a song, and the mixing stage is to align those tracks together through processing to make the song as good as possible, then mastering is adding that extra 10% of polish
on top.
Mastering achieves things like:
Taming and tightening the low-end so that the bass response is great
Getting rid of any leftover muddiness in the mix so that the mid-range is clear
Smoothing out any harshness and adding
high-end sparkle that lifts up the mix
And of course, making the mix as loud as possible without squashing the dynamics of the production.
What Mastering Isn't
I've learned a lot about mastering in my career and what I've discovered is very similar to what I've discovered about
mixing.
There is no way you can create a great mix if the underlying composition, recording, or editing is lacking.
The same goes for mastering.
There is no way you can master a great record if you're working with a bad mix that doesn't have the necessary ingredients to make up a good song.
So, mastering is not a fix for a bad mix. It's not some voodoo magic sauce that magically makes your song a hit, and it's certainly
not a substitute for a good arrangement, recording, or a performance.
However, if you have a decent mix that you like, mastering can take it to the next level.
An unmastered mix may sound great, but it doesn't sound like a record
because it's too dynamic, too quiet and under compressed.
When you add your mastering polish to the mix to remove the dullness and mud, and increase the loudness to competitive levels, it becomes a record.
An
unmastered mix and a mastered record is the difference between a B- and an A+.