Phil Zotti

Probably the most common question associated with audio production is what is mastering? Mastering is the concluding aspect of audio production and occurs in post-production after the songs have been mixed, recorded, and written. The musician albums the various tracks which make up a song and then that song is mixed to achieve its greatest possible sound either by the artists themselves or more generally the engineer.

Once the finishing render been assembled, that mix is turned into an audio sound file commonly in a WAVE format. That wave computer file and all the different files which make up the various tracks on that album are then submitted to the mastering engineer.

While some artists choose to have their producer also master their music or will do it themselves, it is greatest to have a third party not involved with any other element of the audio production to handle your mastering as it's good to get a fresh pair of ears and a new perspective and insight on your music. It is good to get someone new who knows what they are doing as they can bring out the full potential and your music through the process of audio mastering.

The actual mastering itself generally refers back to the enhancement of the audio itself. This involves implementing analog or digital plugins and effects to that final mix sound file to edit and enhance the audio. Probably the most common effects and plugins associated with mastering are audio compression and equalization. Compression can limit the peaks in your audio or smooth out your audio so there's no inconsistencies and ideally to remove clipping through the use of limiters.

Equalization on the other hand entails cutting up the audio and singling out specific ranges or bands to take away from or improve their presence in the mix. You can play with various frequencies making use of equalization to achieve different sounds and highlight or cover up particular areas of your audio. Again, this is done to achieve the greatest possible sound from that music mix and can substantially enrich the perceived clarity of the audio when placed in the hands of a talented professional who knows what they are doing.

There's other aspects of mastering involved such as ensuring that every song which makes up a record is at a equal or similar volume level as every other song. Just as importantly the mastering engineer ensures that the level of the entire album is similar to other current records so that there is no disparity when your tunes are played in a music mix alongside songs from other artists.

CD mastering secondly involves setting up the sequencing for a record and putting together the last computer file which will be delivered to the CD duplication factory. Different aspects of mastering are involved dependant upon what the musician wants in their finishing product and the format in which they plan on putting out the album. Additional steps are second taken if you are mastering for a vinyl version of your album, however above all else mastering ensures that your audio sounds as good as it possibly can before it reaches the ears of your listeners.

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