Mastering, is the audio step that comes just before releasing the final product, and is the critical, creative step in the process of making an audio recording. The mastering process is an art form that uses special, high-quality audio gear in conjunction with one or more sets of critical ears to help you attain the particular sound for your music, and atmosphere that you want.
One of the many goals during the course of recording a project is the idea that the final product will have a certain sound. This sound might be “clean”, “punchy”, “gutsy”, or any other sonic adjective that you’re striving for.
Good mastering can help the music sound better:
• Sound “right”. This is often accomplished through the careful use of Equalization and overall EQ matching. This process takes the right set of processing gear, and experienced audio engineers, that intuitively know how the project will sound under the a wide range of playing conditions.
• Play-back at the right level. Levels are set to the highest possible level that the medium will allow before clipping. Compression is often used to maximize this level, but over compression leads to audible artifacts that can affect the “sound” that you worked so hard for. In some cases, adding revervb to the whole mix can do the trick.
• Match in level & arranging tracks in final sequence. It’s important that levels match from song-to-song.
Equipment that deals with the art and technology of balancing these aspects of creating a finished “master” is available in many different guises. Top-level mastering engineers will use specially designed EQ, dynamics and level matching gear to accomplish the abovementioned goals.
It’s very important to take a long hard look at the experience level of the mastering engineers who will be doing the mastering job.
Professional and experienced engineers can make the crucial difference between an outstanding audio recording project and a mediocre one.
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