Every recording deserves good mastering. When you're through mixing, your work is not finished. Mastering adds polish, it sounds more than just a record...it becomes a work of art. The songs work together seamlessly, their sound can take on a dimensionality and life that enhances even the best mixes.
Those are only some of the reasons why, inevitably, further mastering work is needed to turn your songs into a master, including: adjusting the levels, spacing the tunes, fine-tuning the fadeouts and fade-ins, removing noises, replacing musical mistakes by combining takes (common in direct-to-two track work), equalizing songs to make them brighter or darker, bringing out instruments that (in retrospect) did not seem to come out properly in the mix.Seven Reasons Why Mastering is Needed 1. Ear Fatigue
Usually each tune is mixed in isolation. Rarely do you have the luxury to switch and compare the songs as you mix. The result: Every mix sounds different, every tune has a different response curve.2. The Skew of the Monitoring speakers.
Usually there is no time to see how your music will sound on various systems in different acoustic environments. The result: your mixes are compromised. Some frequencies stand out too much, and others too little.3. More Me
The producer was supposed to be in charge. He tried to keep the artists out of the mix room. But something went out of control.4. May I Have Your Order, Please?
When mixing, you (the producer) often have no idea what order to put the tunes until after all the mixes are completed. If you physically compile these songs at unity gain, and listen to them one after another, it probably won't sound like "a record." Some tunes will jump out at you, others will be too weak; you may discover (belatedly) that some tunes are too bright or weak in the bass, or that the vocal is a little weak.5. The Perspective of another Trained Ear
The Mastering engineer is the last ear on your music project. He can be an artistic, musical, and technical sounding board for your ideas.6. Midi Madness
Lately it sounds like everyone is using the same samples! Good mastering can bring out the acoustic quality in your samples, increasing your chance of success in a crowded music field.7. Don't Try This At Home
The invention of the Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) and the digital mixer is an apparent blessing but really a curse. Many musicians and studios have purchased low cost DAWs and digital mixers because they have been led to believe that sound quality will improve. Unfortunately, it's real easy to misuse this equipment. We've found many DAWs and digital mixers that deteriorate the sound of music, shrink the stereo image and soundstage, and distort the audio. There are several technical reasons for these problems-usually wordlength and jitter are compromised in these low-cost systems. Therefore, we recommend that you protect your audio from damage; use a mastering studio that employs a high-resolution system that enhances rather than deteriorates audio quality.
Now, take a deep breath and welcome to the world of CD mastering.
