Mastering for release on vinyl, for example, is a far more complicated process requiring specialist knowledge and equipment, and beyond the scope of this article.įor any mastering, mixing or recording activities, a good audio interface is absolutely essential. It’s worth pointing out that in this article we are referring to mastering for modern digital releases in formats such as wav, mp3, flac, etc. should be done together to help achieve a cohesive sound across them. If your song is part of a collection of songs such as an album or E.P., it should fit in with and sound sonically compatible with the other songs in the collection. home hi-fi system, car stereo, smartphone, bluetooth speaker, earbuds connected to a phone, etc) Your song should sound good on many different audio systems (e.g.Your song is at a similar volume to other songs in the same genre, that might get played alongside it on the radio.The result of the mastering process should be… The mastering process increases the volume up to commercial levels, and tweaks the tonal characteristics to suit the genre and desired sound. It is the last stage of audio processing performed before releasing your song to the public.

Mastering is making your song suitable for distribution. If you are interested in checking out the best recording gear such as audio interfaces, studio monitor speakers, microphones, etc., you can find them at Amazon by clicking here.īefore we continue, let’s state what exactly mastering is and what it is trying to achieve. We’ll also look in detail at a simple process for mastering your song yourself. There are several ways you can get your songs mastered, and we will cover them all in this article. If you are going to release your music to the public in any way, then you need to learn about mastering. Play the song, and increase the Limiter’s gain until about 3dB of gain reduction is achieved. Set the Limiter’s output ceiling to -0.5dBFS. Use the EQ to perform subtle tonal tweaks. To master a song, add EQ and Limiter plugins to the master bus in your DAW. It was only a few years ago when I had to prepare some of my songs for commercial release, that I really learned what mastering is for and how to do it. Mastering is probably the most misunderstood aspect of music production, particularly by home recording musicians. If you buy through these links, I may earn a small commission. DISCLOSURE: This post contains affiliate links.

Master song track