How To Get Your Song Mastered

Mastering is a crucial part of the music production process. During mastering, the song gets a final polish, with consideration for the overall volume, frequencies, dynamics, and placements of the sounds involved. An audio engineer that does mastering is well-versed in the ways that sounds work together and how sounds can work together to create a cohesive final product. Continue reading from our Detroit recording studio to learn more about the importance of mastering music and how you can get your music mastered by an audio engineer.

How to Get a Song Mastered

There are two ways to get a song mastered: you can use the help of an audio engineer or, if you are on a budget, you can either do it yourself. To master a song yourself, you’ll have to have the space and equipment to do so, and you may even need to build your own recording studio. To master your own music, you’ll have to listen closely to your track(s) and analyze what can be improved and then compress certain dynamics, adjust tones, enhance certain components, fix other qualities, and then create a final file that can be played on various mediums.

However, an important part of mastering is getting a second opinion. Since you have spent so much time writing and recording the song that you are attempting to master, you may lose some sense of objectivity. Using the help of an engineer can allow you to get an outside perspective on the music that you’ve spent so much time thinking about and being close to. If you would still like to master your own music, it’s best to do so after spending a little bit of time away from it, so that your mental faculties have time to switch gears.

If you are hiring an audio engineer to master your music, it’s important to choose one whose sensibilities are aligned with the genre and style of the music that you create.

Understanding Mastering

Before you embark on the process of mixing and mastering your music, it’s important to understand exactly what mastering is. Essentially, mastering is the act of putting the final touches on a piece of music to make it as good as it can possibly be. Mastering cannot be completed until mixing (the process of putting multiple layers on audio together and then editing them to make a song) has been completed. The major difference between mixing and mastering is that mixing entails focusing attention on individual songs while mastering involves consideration for an entire album as a whole.

During mastering, tracks are compressed, equalized, adjusted, and fixed so that a specific sound is achieved. Mastering also entails adding fades to the beginning and ending of a song so that there are transitions between each song on an album. Quality mastering also entails understanding a proper sequence of songs on an album so that the songs on the album can be played seamlessly.

Another crucial part of the mastering process is ensuring that the sound and volume is consistent across an entire album. Audio engineers (or musicians that are mastering their own music) are skilled at balancing the sound of each individual song on an album with the feel of the album in its entirety. Mastering also involves compressing audio files so that they can be easily shared and played on different devices. Track information is embedded into files, tracks are compressed at correct ratios and moved from mono to stereo, and then are packaged so that they can be shared among audiences all over. Another component of mastering is quality control—it is a final check to make sure that there are no glaring flaws before the music is shared with the public.

The Mastering Process

Whether you are doing the mastering of your music yourself or are employing someone else to do it for you, you can anticipate a few crucial steps to the process of mastering.

The first step in the process of mastering is listening and diagnosing. Before any mastering can be done, the track(s) will have to be listened to closely, with consideration for all the individual components that make up the song. Then, the vision of the final product will be taken into account and an assessment of what will need to happen to the track(s) to become what the musician wants it to be made. During this stage of the music mastering process, the song will be listened to and the person mastering it will decide what the song needs. It should be aligned with your plan for your album release.

The next step in the process is processing. At this stage in the process, the person doing the mastering will adjust the volume and compress certain parts of the track(s) so that they are consistent and easy to be listened to. Essentially, the diagnosis that is determined in the first phase of mastering is implemented during this phase.

The final step in the process of mastering is finishing. During this stage, the person doing the mastering will apply fades to the beginnings and endings of songs and will check the overall levels on the songs. Final touches will be added to the songs, data and metadata is added to the files, and then the song is finalized so that it’s ready to be shared with audiences for them to enjoy.

If you have an album on the horizon, call the local experts at Iconic Studios. We work with musicians from a wide variety of genres, and we would love to help you get your music online or in vinyl. Get in touch to book your session today.