

The difference between mastering and mixing is that when you master, you're no longer working with all the individual song elements. You may also need to create different masters of the song based on the requirements of different streaming platforms or playback media.Īnd you want to make sure the tracks to have the proper names. You want all tracks on the album to be the same volume and have the same general tone. You're looking to see that there isn't too much empty space before or after the track. There are also plenty of quality control aspects to mastering. Here is my review of the best mastering plugins. Then learn how to put together a mastering signal chain. Mastering involves special plugins like clippers, brick wall limiters, and buss compressors to take your sound to the next level. Mastering music involves subtle changes to the overall sound to remove some harshness, bring out more complex undertones, and to make the finish recording as good as possible in its final form. Nor can you do anything else to tweak individual instruments. This means you can't directly make the vocals louder, or the guitar quieter. In mastering, you start with the finished mix. Or maybe you'll add some chill vibes with delay or chorus.


You'll add grit and aggression with parallel compression and saturation. You'll remove the rough edges of the recordings with tools like EQ and compression. Not only will you pan instruments to the left and right, you'll chose how close they appear to the listener using reverb. While mixing, you'll be doing a lot to craft the overall vibe of the song.

It even involves vocal recording tricks like editing out breaths! Other times it could mean tuning the vocals or adjusting the timing of a drum hit. Sometimes it means selecting the best takes. From setting the levels of each sound to modifying their tonal characteristics, mixing music involves balancing all of the different parts.Īudio mixing also requires a keen ear for quality control. In a nutshell, mixing music involves shaping all of the individual instrument tracks in a song into a cohesive whole. Download this FREE mastering cheat sheet! What is Audio Mixing?
