What Is Mastering and Why is it Important?
Congratulations, you’re almost there! Mastering is the final step of the production process; the light at the end of the tunnel pre-distribution. We at Studio 45b are proud of you for making it this far. In planning your big release, researching the importance of mastering a song and shopping around for engineers might feel overwhelming at times, but it can also become an empowering part of your journey as an artist.
You don’t have to become an engineer to comprehend why mastering is important, and we want you to understand some basics about what mastering is and why your song needs it before you send your song off to be mastered. The more you know, the more you will feel comfortable advocating for yourself, asking questions, and communicating with your engineer about what you want your music to do. The more you do that, the happier you will be with your music. Let’s dive in, shall we?
Is mastering different from mixing?
Chances are if you’re planning a single, EP, or album release and you’re curious about mastering, you know a thing or two about mixing already. If you haven’t yet, check out our blog “What Is Mixing and Why Does My Song Need It?” This will give you a bit of a basic understanding about the art of mixing, and define a handful of important terms before diving into mastering. Speaking of which….
The short answer is yes, of course mixing and mastering are different, but as with many pieces of the music production puzzle, there is overlap. For example, both the mixing and mastering engineers may use EQ to balance frequencies and compressors to enhance dynamics, but what exactly they are applying these tools to differs and the lens through which they look to apply these things to may be different. We’ll explain.
The common goal of mixing and mastering is to get the song or album to a place of ultimate cohesion, artistry, and clarity. However, mixing engineers are working with several tracks within a song to create one cohesive mix or “two-track” (the two tracks being the left and right ears) to send off to the mastering engineer, whereas a mastering engineer is working with that two-track mix to create a balanced, enhanced, and cohesive “master recording” to prepare it for all sorts of listeners.
Three simple reasons why mastering is important:
Quality Control
Your mastering engineer is the final step in the production process of your song or album. They are the fresh and final pair of ears on the project that act as the ultimate editor. They have also invested in the necessary equipment to listen to and master your music in the most state-of-the-art way to create a beautiful musical product. As we mentioned above, they use all sorts of tools and techniques to enhance, balance, and refine the sound of your master recording. They are the fine-toothed comb that removes any and all unwanted sounds and noises such as hisses and clicks, false starts, and frequencies, and boosts more of what we want in the final recording.
2. Cohesion across an album
If you’re recording an EP, a full length album, or any version of a project that
entails the release of more than just a single, mastering engineers tackle the added challenge of making that entire project as a whole sound like it all belongs together seamlessly. This includes:
Making all songs roughly the same loudness and tonal balance
Considering and ensuring the correct order of the songs
Adjusting fades at the ends of songs and silence/time between songs to create the auditory and artistic effects we want throughout the project
There is a lot of potential artistry in releasing an entire project, and the mastering engineer is keen to every detail.
3. Best sound for all platforms and mediums
The mastering engineer considers whether the song or project will mainly be listened to via streaming platforms (the more common main focus of artists nowadays) or physical mediums such as CDs, vinyl, etc. (much less popular as a primary means of release nowadays, but still important for artists who are more interested in making their splash through selling their music as merchandise at their shows, festival slots, and online stores). Additionally, the mastering engineer considers all the environments and technology through which your music may be played; i.e., AirPods, car stereos, phone speakers, headphones, bluetooth speakers. etc. Each of these changes the sound in some way, and mastering engineers are trained to find the best version of the song for as many mediums as possible. Which brings us to streaming services.
YouTube, Spotify, Apple Music, Bandcamp, Pandora, TikTok and Instagram and so on and so forth…. Each platform has loudness standards (loudness units relative to full scale or LUFS). These platforms enforcing their loudness standards is commonly referred to as audio normalization, meaning each song that is played on the platform, whether it’s a folk ballad or funk jam, will have the same relative volume level so as not to be overly obtrusive in either extreme dynamic direction. If your track is outside of that loudness range for any platform, whether too quiet or loud, streaming platforms will impose a “loudness penalty” to get your songs’ audio levels to where they need to be, adjusting up or down depending. In doing so, these platforms can sometimes entirely change the sound of your song. The loudness penalty may throw off the overall dynamic range and completely drain your music of any of its energy or sparkle, or even cause distortion. Your mastering engineer ensures your music is within these loudness standards to maintain the integrity of the mix and to make your music competitive within the platforms’ algorithms.
If you still have questions on mastering and why the process is necessary for your music in the process of getting it ready for release, reach out to us here or on Instagram. We’re here for you and all of your questions, and when you’re ready to get your songs mastered by our very own award-winning, Nashville-based engineer, we hope you’ll give us a call.
***Written by Singer/Songwriter Kayla Lunden***