How do you master your tracks?

hi guys/girls fellow authors

I was just curious about how people master their tracks/songs, as in describe your mastering chain? what equipment you use and in which order etc…

would be nice to know how the many different authors do their mastering, like a general idea.

and any tips? feel free to share.

thanks alot

I’d love to hear more about this too. I’m just getting into composing my own music here at the studio. Usually I head to other studios for projects that I work on, but lately with the songs I’ve been writing I just apply a good limiter to the tracks and hope I’ve done enough during the mix phase to keep it together.

I’d love to hear other people’s process, especially from those who are mixing/mastering from smaller home studios like I am.

abir187 said
hi guys/girls fellow authors

I was just curious about how people master their tracks/songs, as in describe your mastering chain? what equipment you use and in which order etc…

would be nice to know how the many different authors do their mastering, like a general idea.

and any tips? feel free to share.

thanks alot

Good question. Imagine a box. Everything must be arranged properly, from the bottom to top, front and back so you fill up the whole box nicely.

In music it`s the same. Every instrument “takes a space” in that box. In order to fill it you need different types of instruments/vsts etc. ; each one has it`s own frequency. Also simulating reverb (adds more depth, but it can also ruin the whole song if you over use it). Reverb effect is as important as keeping everything “dry”.

So, panning left/right , adding a little reverb (panned left/right, gives you more depth , it can bring the sound closer or make it sound farther away). Also, recording twice the same instrument and panning left/right the same sound can give you amazing stereo/depth sound. Mono sounds are as important as stereo sounds. It`s all about having a balance of everything (not too much bass, treble etc).

Oh , the most important thing I omitted : YOU NEED A GOOD PAIR OF SPEAKERS and most likely professional headphones . If the song sound good on them, it will sound good on any speaker.

After all the song is in the artist’s head. It`s all about how you reveal it to the audience. Just my humble two cents (and don`t forget to test your song on different set of speakers ex : car, TV, laptop etc)

Regards,

Oxford EQ, Waves Renaissance Compressor, Massey L2007 Limiter,

Those are my favorite plugs that touch basically every track that I master. I also use Izotope Ozone which is great for the price and very simple. Its important to remember not to go overboard with mastering, a good mix will only need very slight eq tweaks, compression to taste, maybe some verb to bring the track together, slight alterations to the stereo image, and multiband dynamic tweaks (izotope is great for this)

If you’re doing your own mastering, I strongly suggest taking a 3 or more day break where you don’t listen to the song at all. Then when you sit down to master it, start tweaking things immediately. Fresh ears are extremely important.

The majority of paid freelance music I do gets sent to a local mastering engineer with a much nicer studio than mine

Whenever possible, send it to someone else whose ears and musicianship you respect.

I agree on coming in fresh for mastering session. Also ears should be fresh for mixing sessions as well. I use mostly waves plugins because it is all I can afford for now. Most people probably already do this, but i think it is important to outpu the mix 2 channel and master separately. Some softwares allow to master and mix all in one but i prefer not to.

garethcoker said
Whenever possible, send it to someone else whose ears and musicianship you respect.

thesecession said
If you’re doing your own mastering, I strongly suggest taking a 3 or more day break where you don’t listen to the song at all. Then when you sit down to master it, start tweaking things immediately. Fresh ears are extremely important. The majority of paid freelance music I do gets sent to a local mastering engineer with a much nicer studio than mine

These ^ ^ ^ ^ ^

Fl studio (software) + maximus + wave candy (plugins) + technics rp-dj 1210 (headphones). Electronic music isn’t hard to master…

If you want to keep it simple without doing too much damage yourself, just try the following plugin chain… EQ, Compressor, Limiter. BANG ! Done. The trick is you gotta know how to use them, and you gotta find some decent software to handle these operations. YouTube is your friend!

My mom is listening:)