What is Mastering and Why is it Necessary?
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 29 ต.ค. 2019
- What is Mastering, and why is it so important to the record making process?
Today, the majority of music is being written, recorded, and mixed in DIY home studios. I love this! But it’s a double-edged sword. Making records is now available to virtually anyone, but so many of these studio spaces are not professionally tuned for critical mixing and mastering decisions.
One of the most common complaints I hear is “well, it sounded great in my studio, but once I put it in my car/on my phone/on my friend’s speakers, it sounded awful.” Even if you DIY absolutely everything else for your album, you should still hire a mastering engineer to make sure all those long hours you spent on your project pay off when your record hits the shelves.
Mastering is the final step between what is created in the studio and what is heard by the consumer - it’s the last creative step and the first part of distribution. The most important role of a mastering engineer is to optimize audio recordings for all playback systems and distribution platforms.
Here’s the lifecycle of a professional record:
1. Conception - songwriting, arrangement, practice, choosing a song order, production, more practice, cutting songs that don’t work, did I mention practice?
2. Pre-Production - choosing your team: Producer, engineers, and studio, booking session time, making sure everyone’s calendar lines up.
Recording - Studio time! Your goal here is to make the best possible recording and never ever say “it’s ok, we’ll fix it in the mix”.
3. Mixing - your mixing engineer’s job is to balance each element of your songs (kick, snare, bass, guitar, vocals, synths, etc.) in a tasteful and artistic way that fully realizes your artistic vision for the record.
4. Mastering - the final “studio” step - one last quality control check and optimizing your record to playback at its fullest potential on all devices and platforms. Your mastering engineer will give you the final “masters” that you will deliver to your distributor.
5. Distribution - these days, distribution is largely done through online services such as Distrokid, Spinnum, CD Baby, and TuneCore. You upload your masters, along with artwork and metadata to one of these services and they will send it to online stores, streaming services, and can make physical copies as well.
Bonus: Promotion - A record doesn’t promote itself. Without you promoting your record, it will sit there in a vacuum and no one will know about it. It’s a good idea to be promoting throughout the entire record-making process to build hype over the release, but a record release party and an accompanying tour is a great idea.
As you can see, mastering is the last line of defense between what happens in the studio and what gets released to the public. Skimping out on a mastering engineer at best means that you don’t have anyone to do a final check-up of your record, and at worst, could mean that your record is entirely unlistenable - full of distortion, way quieter than other professionally released songs, riddled with skips, pops, and glitches, etc.
A mastering engineer is outside ears - unbiased, fresh, and finely tuned. Our job is not to slap a mastering chain on your mix - our job is to listen and decide whether your mix needs a mastering chain and if so, what should be in that chain.
As a mastering engineer, It is my responsibility to balance the sonic elements of your recording and create a “master” from which all copies are made. In the case of multiple songs making up and album or EP, I create uniformity and consistency of sound across the record while maintaining or enhancing the sonic characteristics of each recording.
To achieve this goal, I use analog and digital equalization, dynamic range manipulation (compression, expansion, and limiting), stereo imaging, audio restoration tools, and much more.
If you are in need of real, professional, custom, bespoke, artisanal, musical mastering, I’d love to help you out with that! Hit me up at borzamastering.com, and if you’d like to discuss this video further, or if you have any questions, come join the Analog Mob on Facebook and hang out with some really cool people!
www.borzamastering.com
/ theanalogmob
Be careful with the notion of "the master is the solution to your mix falling apart". When I first started 'bedroom-producing' I always assumed the master would solve all of my problems - it didn't. I've found a lot of success from just digging into my mix and using a critical ear to make it sound perfect, then get it mastered ;) Great video!!
exaclty my tought. when i didn know anything about mixing my tracks sounded like shit on other systems. when i started to mix my tracks, listened on other systems/devices, made notes what were the problems i ran into on these and then fixed them in the mix i ddnt have any problems anymore. thats why i wanted to watch this video. getting known to why i have to master tracks since they all sound perfect on different devices/systems/locations.
is it that (if the mix is perfect) i just have to apply a limiter, bring everything to the same loudness (the on thats suggestes by the streaming platforms/cd/tape/vinyl maufactures) and thats it?
cheers and give me knowlede, y'all!
Well, a producer will tell you to hire someone to produce your song, a singer will tell you to hire someone to sing your song, a songwriter will tell you to hire someone to write your songs, and someone who masters will tell you to hire someone to master your song. Could have talked a bit more about mastering and a bit less about hiring someone like him
Professional mastering is great if you can afford it but it's also true that anyone can learn to master their audio at home. It takes time but it'll save you money in the long run.
1:37 Very well said! That's the best first explanation everyone -wondering what mastering is- should hear!
In the process of getting a song mastered I’m super excited 😆 can’t wait 😛 thx for the great information!!!!!!!
Congrats dude!
Thank you this helped so much!
Thanks for watching!
Mastering is the final stage of production but you need to have a good mix first. Mastering can not fix an improper mix, in fact it will bring out the imperfections a lot more.
Great job bro
Love this video!
Explained it very well
The mastering "engineer" is the esoteric among musicians. He promises to make the songs better with globulie and many fall for the placebo
Can you explain why app output volume is not the same as Master volume output? For example a media player app itself has its own volume adjustment but then the app output volume adjustment intervals being adjusted is not the equalvalent of app output volume intervals is there a specific setting that would fix this on windows?
I have a question . I don’t know if this is related to the mastering side of things It’s a very newbie question .
When I record guitar, and it sounds satisfying at about the volume I feel I’d keep it in a song, will it stay at that tonality once song is mixed and ready to get mastered and once it’s mastered?
What I’m referring to is I have a tone that sounds good but if I were to individually raise the volume of it it would get harsh-ish and reveal the bright edge to the sound too much , it at a certain level, it’s just right .
So when the song is mixed and OR mastered, when someone raises the song volume in their system, it won’t have the same effect as me raising it now correct? Raising the volume of the mixed track won’t reveal the extra details I’m hearing when I’m personally raising its volume without it being set in stone in the mix?
If someone were to raise the volume of the song, the guitar will essentially be “frozen “ at that brightness and tone , it won’t necessarily be altered and magnified by raising be volume the same way it is when I’m listening to it solo?
I hope I explained that well . I feel like the answer is no it won’t be the same raising the overall song volume as me raising the individual track on its own pre mixed . At about song level it sounds good, it’s just when I keep raising it to max out the way I can max out a finished song, it doesn’t sound right. But I’m assuming if it’s mixed at that certain volume in relation to everything else , then it won’t really be an issue .
I hope what I’m saying makes sense lol
You’re on the right track. You seem to be describing the difference between gain and volume.
Ah that makes sense .
Ok, so essentially if it sounds “good” at a volume and is mixed this way, it will stay at that quality and be locked in .
When a causal listener raises their volume the effect isn’t the same for them as it was for me with an unprocessed track , yeah?
Just making sure my understanding is what we agree on.
Thanks for that , that may be a big deal for me lol
- thing was I recorded the writing process for a song and was listening to the track on iTunes and wondered if I could implement that track instead of re-record since it sounded good. But then raising the volume to higher than normal volume it didn’t sound great and then considered what I asked you .
Yes if mixed at that low level it won't be much of a issue but something great will be missing. The loudness level for commercial purposes depending on the genre might be missing. It sounds better when played loud and solo because it won't fight any other frequency band or other instruments. But all instruments played at once there definitely going to be fight with noises. THAT'S WHY WE MIX SONGS. MIXING ENGINEERS ARE PAID TO WORK ON THIS PROBLEMS TO AVOID THE FIGHTING NOISES IN VOLUMES CHANGES AND CHARACTERISTICS CONTROL. .. THE BETTER THE AUIDO GEAR THE BETTER THE RESULTS.
Hey, please what is the actual difference between the Hardware mastering and software mastering?
How do I contact you about a project?
Thanks for the video! so basically Mixing is initial volume, panning and effects, and Mastering is compression, EQ, stereo effects etec?
not at all. All that you mentioned is part of mixing. mastering is making it louder and putting on finishing touches as well as making songs have a consistent sound across an album. plus, the mastering engineer is a critical objective ear
Ps you remind me of a good friend who is now passed away. I hope the best for you in your new job. I must say I very much liked your older videos though...just a couple pieces of equipment and a good attitude and a great blog! What happened!?
dude, what's your problem? do you really not understand mastering? so I guess movies should not get color graded either?
I understand it. Is it a need? No.
Dude didn't even explain what mastering is, just spent 7 minutes saying how important it was. Never once said what a mastering engineer actually does, just said that you need one.
He has mentioned what it is dude. Just pay attention.
3:49 pay attention
Its a 7 minute video about what mastering is but its only mentioned breifly 4 minutes in? 😅@@30roundporsh
Hi there. What is your rate for an independent artist single?
Shoot me an email will at borzamastering 😀
That makes sense of between mix and mastering and why that all of these recording artist like newsboys feeder hanson Green Day Weezer one direction Niall horan and etc does mix before mastering and mix you put all of the individual tracks together while mastering is the final touch before distribution which is true and it’s the last step of what happens in the studio vs the world 🌍 and that’s cool 😎 that makes perfect sense hopefully 🙏 in the near future make a TH-cam video on runtime and why in that process of why the engineer 👨💻 always sets the time on when the song starts and when the song ends that’s what lair of the alchemist told me and Jonathan Miller told me is that runtime starts at 0:00 and then stop ✋🏻 when the audio is finished he told me about it in the comments down below ⬇️ 👇 but haven’t made a TH-cam video about it so I’m asking you about making a TH-cam video on runtime and why every single track have to play at the very beginning and wait until the very end like r.e.m what’s the frequency Kenneth starts at 0:00 and ends at 3:59.
my mans noise floor on this video is super high
Love to have a link with you.
Please send me a contract.
2:31 practice, please practice
7 minutes to say " mastering is bringing things to level " whatever that means
I don’t think that’s what he was saying at all. He made his point very early in the video. Mastering is applying appropriate processing to ensure the final mixes translate onto all speaker platforms.
I have one song can u master it
Shoot me an email :-)
@@WillBorza ur email?
Head over to my website and fill out the form - borzamastering .com
To expand on your promotional process; “hey, were mastering our record,” “hey, we’re broke, we spent all our cash on mastering,” hey, no one is buying our mastered record,” “ hey, were in bankruptcy,” “hey, what am I going to eat.” “I shouldn’t have bought into the mastering hype.”🤨
lol did a mastering engineer hurt you?
Maybe mastering is overhyped. Maybe songs dont sound bad without mastering. But it makes the difference between a good and a perfect song. and in this world perfect ALWAYS wins good. So yes you can release unmastered songs when you start since they gonna suck anyway, but there is no professional song of any genre in any corner of the world that will be released to the public without being mastered first. And if you are still not convinced check out any remastered song out there and compare it with the original. If you find no difference then you do you i really have nothing else to say.
@@jirago7h460 People will love a great unmastered song over a shitty "mastered" one. The average person wouldnt be able to tell between a nicely mixed song and a song mastered by borza or any other person anyway. The average person doesn't care about only hearing music that is mastered. They just want to hear a good song and carry on with their lives. You said "Maybe songs dont sound bad without mastering. But it makes the difference between a good and a perfect song." That's your opinion. A "perfectly mastered song" to you may be manure to another. Save your money, skip the master.
I have really good songs, but it’s pointless to put them out there because of many factors. Most musicians wind up in the poor house anyway....and there’s getting ripped off, used, ripped off, etc. I can probably just get a knock off platinum record, hang it in my home studio, and convince people that one of my songs hit it big...and most people wouldn’t question it ha!
How are people so terrible at explaining something they know
I’m giving you crap. I think it is over rated. If you have a great song, it isn’t because it was mastered. Someone wants a bite of the profits at every level. Skip the levels, do it yourself, and keep the cash you make for better equipment. Also, it is absolutely RIDICULOUS the amount a guy needs to spend to get tape like results. The whole industry is a den of vipers! Just think of how many unbelievably good songs never came to light because of the cost of it all!
The only real reason you think it’s necessary is that you need a paycheck. Other than that, it’s not.
Hi 2cthetruth! I'd love to hear your reasoning behind that!
Also, a question for you: How many songs that have won Grammy's can you list that were not mastered? How many songs can you list that have gone gold or platinum without being mastered?
What an arrogant, ridiculous and trolling comment.
Diy studios are good for composing and drafts of different musical ideas, but that's about all.
Not true at all lol. Literally everything that's done in a "professional" studio can be done at home nowadays. Just a bunch of gatekeepers trying to keep their jobs.
@@itsmeagain966 That's true if you have the knowledge of mastering. If not then that's what I see mastering professionals are for. I for one can mix a song to a decent degree, but I don't know how to make it into a finished studio mastered product, so I would hire someone to master if I was still making music only for my lack of knowledge.