Mastering your mix
Mastering is the final step in preparing recordings for commercial release. Mastering engineers typically do the following:
- Eliminate pops and clicks and other noise flaws.
- Adjust the volumes between songs for consistency so that listeners do not have to keep turning the volume up and down when listening to an album.
- Adjust the volume so that the loudness conforms to the standards of the intended playback medium (streaming services, CDs, and so on).
- Adjust the EQ and width of the songs, and apply compression or expansion.
- Arrange the songs' order and add fade outs, where required.
- Insert ISRC codes and CD text.
The changed role of the mastering engineer
Mastering engineers were considered an elite class of engineers. They had very specific knowledge of how the grooves on vinyl records worked and often thousands of dollars of analog gear to master with, which they knew really well. They were considered essential by record...
