Music Mastering Services

What is music mastering?

Music Mastering is basically about 3 elements. Those elements are equalization, dynamics control, and loudness management. You could add a fourth element which is effects, but overall the first 3 elements are involved every time a song is mastered.

Why is an Equalizer an important?

An equalizer, or EQ, is used to turn down the frequencies that are negatively affecting the music or song, and to accentuate the frequencies that are positively affecting the music or song. Also, an EQ is used to balance the frequency spectrum of a song or music. In other words, you don’t want the high or low frequencies of a song to be too loud or present and you don’t want the middle frequencies to be too loud or present. You want them all to work together while being balanced with one another. This gives the music the best chance of sounding good on any medium or any playback device.

How do dynamics play a role in music?

Music is very dynamic. This means that the sound moves around, and it moves around a lot. Just think of a human voice. When communicating, the human voice goes up and down. It gets higher pitched at some points, and lower pitched at others. At times a voice gets louder, and it gets quieter at others. The same thing happens with a song or music, and those changes need to be controlled to some degree to avoid sonic chaos. During mastering, the dynamics are primarily controlled by compression. You want the sound to move, just not too much. A compressor gently controls the dynamics of a song without crushing the life out of it. It also acts as another way to balance out the frequency spectrum of a song or music. The balance is achieved by balancing the overall tone of the song, as opposed to specific frequencies like with an EQ.

How do you handle loudness management?

We want our music to be loud, but not too loud. This is what loudness management is all about, and this is achieved using a limiter. When it comes to controlling dynamics, a compressor is Dr. Jekyll, and a limiter is Mr. Hyde. The compressor is the easy-going dynamics processor, while the limiter is the strict, no-nonsense; my way or the highway type of dynamics processor. Some peaks may get by the compressor, but they won’t get by the limiter.

Music Mixing

Mixing music is more involved than mastering music because you’re dealing with individual tracks. With mixing, there are basically five elements. Those elements are volume, panning, equalization or EQ, effects, and dynamics. A mix is about three things, and those three things are balance, balance, and balance.

The volume of the individual tracks is balanced against one another.

The tracks are panned or directed towards different spots in the stereo field to give the instruments their own space. It’s like watching a movie. If there is a house, a car and a big tree in the scene, then those three things are spread out across the screen to make all of them easier to see as they occupy their own space. If all three were in the same part of the screen, something would get blocked. That works the same way when mixing music, and that’s what panning is for.

The EQ is basically used for the same reason for mixing as in mastering, which is cutting the bad and boosting the good. And EQ also helps to shape the tracks in a way to make them fit better with each other. But during mixing, an EQ can also be used for more of a creative purpose than in mastering. This is because you’re dealing with individual tracks as opposed to a stereo mix, so more flexibility is possible.

Effects are used to enhance the elements of the tracks. Effects can include reverb, delay, chorusing, flanging, etc. Once again, it’s all about what works best, and what sounds best.