Sound Clash Recordings NYC

The concept of mastering a song can be overwhelming to new artists, so we’ve broken down some of the basic ideas involved in the process.

 

MIXING

 

Let’s start by pointing out that mixing and mastering are two separate steps in production, even though they often get lumped together in one statement - “mix and master”.

 

The mixing process is where we make adjustments to the individual components of a song, such as drums, bass, piano, vocals, etc. The goal is to artistically bring all of the separate parts together into 2 tracks - stereo left and right. So, mixing goes from many individual tracks (potentially hundreds) down to 2 tracks. Along the way we can play with tones, dynamics and even add in effects like reverbs and delays.

 

MASTERING vs LOUDNESS

 

Mastering is the process of taking that “2-track mix” and preparing it for all the speakers of the world. This process can be different for every song, but the tools we often use are equalization, dynamics control, and some harmonic mojo. The idea is for the song to make an impact on any system, from laptops to the outdoor music festival.

 

The main goal is not to just make the song sound louder. There are endless articles written about the mastering “loudness wars” of the last 20 years, and many of the concerns are valid. Often, just mastering a song for loudness can also make it more fatiguing to listen to.

 

But very likely most digital music players will soon have some type of level-matching feature, where listeners will enjoy a constant volume regardless of the relative loudnesses of the individual songs. With this in mind, we can all refocus our energies on making songs “better”, not louder.

 

SEQUENCING

 

When we’re dealing with multiple songs - such as an album, EP, or mixtape - there is an additional goal in mastering of making the songs flow together. This includes considering the relative tones and dynamics of the songs, as well as the timing of fades and spacings in between.

 

DELIVERY

 

This final concept is one people often overlook when thinking about the mastering process, and that’s the delivery of the master. If you’re pressing CD’s or vinyl then you’re going to need a master copy for each format. If you’re converting to mp3’s, the mastering engineer can make the conversion happen from a higher resolution file as well as embed any metadata such as artwork, lyrics, etc.

 

So those are the bare bones basics of mastering, feel free to connect with us if you have any questions about the specifics of the process.