What Preparations Does an Artist Need to Make Before Mastering a Track?
Digital music now makes up $5.8 billion of the global recording industry’s $19.1 billion in revenue. 14.6 million songs are uploaded each year to Spotify alone. This allows anyone to create their own tracks from home but has also raised listeners’ expectations. Mastering a track is the final step in the music production process. It provides the final touches, […]
Mixing vs Mastering: What’s the Real Difference?
In the world of amateur music production – people often interchange mixing and mastering, as if they are the same thing. However, this could not be further from the truth. Albeit, they are both critically important and help balance out the process of the other. In a few words, mixing – balances out individual sounds/instruments […]
Mastering Music: Why is it important?
Around 40,000 songs are uploaded to Spotify every single day. That’s 14.6 million songs every year. With so much music available, listeners have come to expect a certain level of quality. Not only must your music be mixed to a good standard, but it must also be mastered. What is mastering music, exactly? Why is it important? […]
5 Pro Tips for Recording Vocals Perfectly Every Time
You’ve done it. You’ve crafted the perfect song, and it’s time to show it to the world. But something happens when you go to play the file. The vocal recordings are terrible. There’s background noise, the volume slips in and out, and occasionally there’s a screech of static or patch of fuzz. This audio’s un-usable: […]
The Importance of Tonal Balance in Mastering Audio
You know when you’ve heard a good piece of music when it just works. You can’t put your finger on why, but every part works to enhance the others. Chances are, you’ve hit on a song with good tonal balance. Some ideas about how music should sound come from early nineteenth-century classical music. Back then, music was all […]
10 Tips for Audio Mastering if You’re Not a Mastering Engineer
Audio mastering is the final step before you release your track to the world. This is the stage where all minor flaws are corrected, the track is leveled up for commercial release standards and ensures that all the tracks play at the same volume. It’s a process with a lot of history. 3M introduced the first […]
How to Master Your Audio at Home
You love music so much that you’ve set up a home studio. You’re enjoying the benefits of music in your life as a stress reliever or a creative outlet. But maybe you want to take your journey to the next level by learning how to master audio. Of course, becoming an expert in anything requires […]
Audio 101: What’s the Difference Between Mixing and Mastering
Sound or audio production transitioned through the acoustic, electric and magnetic eras of production, to make it to where we currently stand – the digital era. Ry Cooder’s Bop ‘Til You Drop, made history in 1979 by becoming the first digitally recorded pop album, and that swung things into full motion. Now, music production is […]
Mastering Mixes: Should the Mixing Engineer Master the Tracks?
If you’re a musician, you understand recorded music is necessary to drive your career and gain a fanbase. If you’re shopping for an engineer to work on the mixes, you’re probably wondering if the same professional can also handle your masters. Here’s how to know if your mixing engineer should handle the mastering — and why […]
What’s the Best Volume for a Hip Hop Mastered Song?
How well do you understand mastering? For something that’s needed on every track, there’s still a lot of mystery surrounding it. The last step before releasing a track, mastering takes place after all the production and post-production has wrapped-up. Once all the levels are properly mixed and balanced, mastering adds that final polish and brings […]