There is a broad range of VST plugins that can be used for mastering: brick wall limiters, single band compressors, multi-band compressors, equalizers, stereo enhancers, etc. So with that out of the way let’s move on! A Bit of Info on Mastering Tools And for some excellent advice on mastering, check out this article by Ian Shepherd or this guide on mastering beats from Modern Samples). If you are serious about mastering your song, I STRONGLY advise you to contact a professional mastering engineer. Once I feel like I have something ready for release, I’ll bring a mastering engineer on board.īut let me also preface by saying that I’m NOT a professional – I’m just a hobbyist so what I’m writing here may NOT be the best practice. My general rule of thumb is when I’m producing a track for fun or experimentation, I handle the mastering duties. Whatever your reason, I think it’s good to learn the basics and get your head around what mastering can do for your tracks. There are many reasons to want to take on the mastering yourself including (but not limited to): limited budget, referencing your tracks at a “mastering level”, making music for fun (not profit) and don’t need to hire anyone, and the list goes on.
So they pretty much know what can be done (or shouldn’t be done) to enhance the quality of your mix.īut, we’re also living in the new age of modern music production where artists and producers are choosing to do a lot more on their own – this includes the mastering phase. I wouldn’t disagree because mastering engineers have the skills, professional equipment, proper listening environment, and trained ears on top of years of experience. They say that you shouldn’t master your songs by yourself if you don’t know what you’re doing. Do I need to Hire a Mastering Engineer?Ī lot of producers and professionals say that mastering should be left to the professionals.
And even though I’m do not consider myself to be a professional, they might help you. So if all that sounds a little too familiar, I recommend checking out some of my guidelines for mixing electronic music. Your song needs to sound balanced and as good as possible before moving into to the mastering stage. So, before you consider experimenting with mastering, it’s essential to learn how to mix first. You need to achieve the “commercialism” as much as possible during the mixing stage. Mastering isn’t a way to fix major mixing issues and also it isn’t “magic” that will turn an unbalanced mix into a polished, commercial song. The truth is, if your song is not mixed properly, amateur level mastering isn’t going to do you any favors – in fact, it’ll probably make it worse.
Keep in mind that mastering goes hand-in-hand with mixing. After mastering, your song should be ready to go public. It’s also preparing a song for the proper medium (i.e.
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