Music mastery is the most important process of finalizing your song or album. In the mastering process, a sound engineer will work through three basic elements to make your music sound as great as a live performance: equalization, dynamic control, and loudness management. Once these three are managed correctly, a master CD of your album or song will be made. This is the CD from which all the copies of your song or album will be made. Therefore, it is crucial for sound mixing to be done properly.
The Importance of Equalization
Equalization is the process of modifying the specific frequencies in your song. Positive frequencies will be turned up and negative frequencies turned down, helping achieve an overall balance to your song. The goal is to pull these frequencies together to achieve a harmony that will sound good on any and all playback devices.
Dynamic Control Makes a Difference
Dynamic control helps hold the movement of sound together through compression. When you record your song certain instruments and sounds may come through more presently than others which may dominate the song. Light compression will eliminate any massive changes in movement. Multiple instruments and voices can be brought together in this process adding unity. The music will still facilitate dynamic range but will keep things in balance. Compression also aids in balancing the general tone of the song, as well.
Why You Need Loudness Management
Loudness management focuses on the peaks in the volume of your song. To solve this a limiter is employed to hold the volume together, though just like the compressor it is used only lightly so that the song holds the life of the live performance.
Working through these processes can help you determine if you want to make any changes to your song or album. Perhaps there are certain elements that don’t work as well as you originally thought and could be modified. Or you may enjoy an under-used element in one of your songs and want to make it more presentable. The mastery process is a great time to work through all the final tweaks to make sure your final product is incredible and ready for production.
All of this is included in the Music Mastering Services at Flamebridge Music – Learn more.