What, exactly, is "mastering" a song?!
Question: What, exactly, is "mastering" a song!?
Is it just going through and editing every frequency, keeping everything on balance (especially in vocals), or what!? I always hear everyone complaining about having to do it and I've been recording some stuff of my own, so I'd just like to know I guess!. Heh!.Www@Enter-QA@Com
Answers:
Technically mixing is the art of balancing out the instruments and making the track sound good!.
Mastering is then the process of taking an album's worth of songs and adjusting them so that the volume levels are consistent and that they have the same "feel", and making sure they will burn well to a CD!.
As time has passed, the two blur!. Mixing is more meant to be the process of getting the track balanced and sounding decent, while mastering is the time-consuming nitty-gritty black art that takes a normal sounding mix and makes it pop - really gives it that commercial quality feeling to it!.
Both can be a real pain - mixing if the recording process wasn't done well, and mastering if the mixing process wasn't done well!.
SaulWww@Enter-QA@Com