Here’s our hit-list of top tips for mastering mastering!
01 LOCATION AND SETUP
It sounds incredibly obvious, but looking after your working environment and setup will not only make mastering easier, but most likely produce better results. Ensuring that your ears are right between your monitors, in the sweet spot, means that you can make slight and minute adjustments in mastering, and hear your every alteration. Learn from the professionals; that is the only way they will toil.
02 LISTEN ELSEWHERE
Once you have a mastered track, try listening on other speaker and headphone formats. Many devices these days provide a trademark sound, which is gratifying in both high and low registers. These devices can really highlight issues with your master, particularly in the lower end, so take your master away from your studio, and listen in the kitchen, car, lounge or even on TV.
03 LISTEN
It’s very tempting to master music using your eyes, but you really shouldn’t. What do we mean by this? Don’t rely on the visuals on screen. The fact that a meter might be behaving in a certain way, on screen, does not necessarily mean that this will translate to the sound you want. Always listen, first and foremost, and inform your decision on what you hear, not the numbers that are on view.
04 EXPLORE YOUR DAW’S PLUGINS
All DAWs ship or download with an incredibly large amount of content. The chances are, you have everything that you need to successfully master your productions to a relatively high standard. This is fantastic if you’re working on a budget. Make your main DAW package work for you, before you buy anything else.
05 STOP THAT NOISE!
The vast majority of mixing and music at terribly high volume. In mastering engineers do not work with connection with fatigue, the louder you play your music, the shorter the amount of time you’re likely to be able to work, at least in any objective way. Lessening your monitoring level will create a more comfortable working environment. If you can get your track to sound good at a lower volume, it will sound amazing at high volume!
06 A SECOND PAIR OF EARS
tracks. They will have a different Invite similarly minded friends to critically listen to your mastered set up, and another view on your mastering tactics. It’s no coincidence, that often professionals will get other people to master their work, and having a second pair of ears on hand, to provide constructive feedback, can be really helpful to the ultimate cause.
07 TAKE REGULAR BREAKS
Just like muscles in the body, your ears can get tired and fatigue over time, especially when they’re being subjected to continuous amounts of music. Every mastering engineer will have their own best time of day to work, but it stands to re
