Do I really need Mastering? What the heck is that anyway?  Why can’t I just do it myself?

These are all pretty valid questions when you consider how little mastering gets talked about in the music industry.  I’m going to tackle the questions a bit out of order though, and just try to give you some food for thought.  If you don’t like what I’ve said, or you think I missed something, please leaves some comments.

What the heck is mastering?

I’ve answered this question a couple of times in the last few days, just talking to people.  There’s a traditional answer and a more commonplace understanding.  Traditionally mastering is the process in which a “master copy” is made.  This master is considered the “final version” of an album, and is sent to the duplication plants for production.

It was also the part in the process when a collection of mixed songs gets put in order and relatively normalized in terms of values.  Now normalization seems to mean “gets loud as hell” to people now, but it used to mean that a volume level was decided as the “normal level” that was then applied to all the tracks.  That meant that from song to song, you had a relative consistent volume and didn’t feel compelled to turn up/down the volume.

This process of normalization did not generally undo all of the dynamics in an album.  Try listening to some older albums that haven’t been “remastered” in the last 10 years.  A lot of times you’ll find the music dipping down into volumes where it is barely audible, and other times, it feel like it swells almost to the point of “too-loud.”

Nowadays, it is more common to see music always at it’s maximum level.  The only time you hear quiet passages are in a fleeting intro or fade-out.  It is pretty common to hear music “maximized” to the point of distortion and morphing of the stereo field.

Music with no dynamics, tends to be frowned upon by recording engneers, but it isn’t always inappropriate.  Music made to be played in clubs or for dancefloors is often maximized throughout to keep tracks feeling exciting from one to the next.  Ironically it’s this kind of music that tends to have the most volume changes passage-to-passage as dancing at full intensity for 10 minutes straight doesn’t work for most people.

The real shame is that the effort spent to sound as loud as the next guy, generally requires all mastering to turn into a race to volume ceiling accompanied by massive ammounts of distortion.  Limiting and compression are often used in force, and often end up being fancy forms of “clipping.”   Not to mention, you’ll often find that your mixes sound more “mono” than before because compressors and limiters work by reducing the “differences” in volume on stereo tracks.

So the more commonly thought of answer to “what is mastering” tends to be “making everything as loud as such and such.”

Do I really need mastering?

As someone who has fought this battle, I’ll just say that it bugs me to have to do this, but I understand it.  People tend to hear “softer” things as better.  They’re also terrified of using the volume knob – thinking that having to turn their music up means that their mix is “bad.”

This is untrue.  But it’s hard to argue with when your clients are listening to unmastered mixes and comparing them to mastered albums.

Add to that, mastering is a very specialized trade, with a lot of specialized and EXPENSIVE equipment.  This generally means that if you have things “professionally” mastered by engineers with years of experience, then you’re gonna pay a pretty penny.  It also means that if you’re not paying much for mastering, or your mixer is just slapping on compressors and limiters to your mix, then you’re not really getting a thorough mastering job.

But why can’t I just do it myself?

The short answer is this:

You can do it yourself, but you won’t probably like it.

You can pay someone to do it, and you’ll probably like it.

You can pay a LOT for someone to do it, and you’ll never ask that question again.

A longer answer would be:

Mastering is a process that can techinically be done by anyone with a DAW.  It cannot be done with much precision or accurate “maximizing” on a set of cheapy speakers in any-old room with whatever plugins.  What I mean is mastering generally requires the ability to “know” with certainty that the processing applied is 1) NOT causing distortion and 2) will sound relatively uniform across a lot of different speaker systems and headphones.

Those two requirements are complicated tasks, and event the BEST mix and recording engineers and producers may not be equipped to handle them. It is also true that most of the BEST mix engineers will refer you to mastering engineers because they understand that it is a very different process than mixing.

So what the heck am I supposed to do…?

The best answer I can give about mastering is

1) Do it.  If you’re going to sell your music, people expect it to be at a certain level of volume.  Don’t mistake this for needing it to be maximized to the limit.  Just compare your music to other songs in the same genre with similar mixing aesthetics and decide for yourself.  A simple, but gentle mastering job can often get your levels higher, without crushing things.  Just remember that if an engineer tells you “louder will mean distortion” you’ve probably hit the “clean” limits of mastering… at least at your current price bracket.

2) Spend as much as you can on it.  If you can pay someone to do it, then that’s what I’d do.  If you can pay a LOT, then I’d suggest doing that.  That really has to do with the experience of the mastering engineer and the quality of their equipment. As much as music production has become a democratized thing that everyone can do – mastering is still a relatively specialized process that requires some pretty esoteric know-how.

3) Remember to listen to “mixes” and “masters” differently.  PLEASE don’t go back to your mix engineer and demand everything be “louder” because that’s not his job.  I’m not trying to make anyone feel bad about their requests to engineers, but just know that mixes are supposed to be less loud than masters, because your mixer is purposefully leaving headroom for your mastering engineer to work with. Without that headroom, your mastering engineer is left with very few option.

4) Keep in mind that you have to balance principles, your budget, and the demands of your audience.  These are all valid needs when working in music, and you’ve got to prioritize these things on your own.  If you’re low on cash, try to find someone who has a little more experience with it to at least help you out.  If you’re going to do it yourself, try to find some books/articles and other info on how to do it.  It will at least give you some starting points. If your audience demands super-loud mixes, well… that’s hard to argue with.