Why do songs need to be mastered? I've seen this question on the Internet many times.The answer I always see is "Because all songs on the radio have been professionally mastered, yours should be too."This is a true fact, but not an answer.
Your songs need to be masteredbecause you want them to have the same qualities of a well professionally mastered commercial song, and this can only be achieved by using effects on the stereo/main out bus.Which is what mastering is, using effects on the stereo/main out bus.Many critical processes can only be done in mastering.
Here are couple of examples of why a song needs to be mastered:
Do you want to be able to play your song loud without it breaking up?Then you need mastering.In mastering, you can compress the entire song as a whole (or in separate BANDS) so it doesn't peak too hot or distort during loud playback.Compressing a song in mastering also kind of meshes everything together.In mixing, you can only compress individual instruments like the bass, vocals, etc.This does nothing for loud playback nor does it mesh the song together as a whole.
Do you want your songs to be as loud as the songs on the radio?Then you need mastering.In mastering, you can use a loudness maximizer and make your songs as loud as needed without distorting.You can't do this in mixingby cranking up your levels.You will distort before reaching your desired loudness.
This question is kind of like asking, "Why does my cake need to go in the oven?"If you want it to be a real cake, and be similar to other cakes, the oven is the final process to get it there.You don't have a cake unless it goes in the oven!You only have raw mixed ingredients.The oven meshes everything together to be like other cakes. {article 170}[layout]{/article}
Here are a few great stereo widening techniques and how to use them in music. When you listen to music on a car radio, you want that wide stereo sound that extends from the left door to the right. Not just two feet wide right above the stereo!
Here are the series of audio mastering software processors I've used on the over 30,000 songs I've mastered since 1999. In this video, I use mostly izotope ozone plugins because it's easier to explain using them. In real-life, I do mix in a few hardware pieces, and a waves plugin.
I started my career using the old analog stuff, since that was the only option.I incorporated digital software plugins as soon as they became available, but it took many years before computers were fast enough to run them in realtime.And also before they started making very high quality plugins.
Why do songs need to be mastered? I've seen this question on the Internet many times.The answer I always see is "Because all songs on the radio have been professionally mastered, yours should be too."This is a true fact, but not an answer.
If you're looking for the best website hosting for musicians, bands, and music recording studios, here's my own personal experience with website hosting companies.
These are the Top 17 most common music mixing mistakes I see daily. Correcting them could will improve your audio mastering results and make your mixes sound more professional.
Correctly setting your mixing levels before mastering is essential for great mastering results. Having the best DB levels for mixing is critical. Here's how to properly do it!
A lot of mastering engineers are afraid to make drastic changes to a mix they are working on. That, or they're stuck in the familiarity of always making only small changes.
In this video I show how you can turn a weak mix (definitely wouldn't call it bad) into a great sounding master, simply by pushing your levels a little more than you might be used to.
This article discusses what is the chorus effect in music and how to use it? The chorus effect makes a single audio track sound like a group. It achieves this by taking a single instrument or vocal track, multiplying it, and then slightly detunes each newly created track. The result is a fuller lush sounding audio track.
In this video I do a quick A/B comparison of a few songs. In my audio mastering secrets video series, I get a lot more in-depth into exactly what you are trying to achieve sonically for your genre/style of music.
Would you like to know how to master a song or how to master your own music? So many people think just making the volumes the same level for every song is "mastering" their CD. Well, mastering is a lot more than just that!
I had to write a quick note on this, as I was reminded about it while thumbing through a popular mixing book that had a 15 page section on speaker resonance and room sound proofing.I must say, a very exciting 15 pages!Ha!
I've mastered over 40,000 songs since 1999. I've charged $10 a song, $20, $30, $50 even $100! Some prices worked better than others. Here are a few facts to consider when deciding on what prices to charge. Read more....
If you've mixed songs in the past, you more than likely can use that same software for audio mastering. As long as you can add effects to the stereo/main out bus, you're good to go. Read more....