Quick Guide to Mastering

Joey shows you his step-by-step process for mastering songs. Do you master your own mixes? Let us know in the comments!

0:00 Introduction
0:20 What's mastering?
0:40 Environment
1:53 Mix Prep
2:39 References
3:26 Dynamics
3:51 EQ
4:30 Finishing Touches
6:15 Thoughts

Tags:mastering tutorials,home recording,audio production
#masteringtutorials #homerecording #audioproduction

[Hlecktro]

Do my own mastering. Unless you're popular enough to be able to release an album, or submit commercial work to guarantee $$$ returns it's a waste of cash. The people who support you are going to support you anyways, and they aren't going to care about the difference between a professional master and a home master. For personal projects at least, as long as the music is presentable and the mix isn't distractingly bad people will enjoy it. I find this in pretty much every field in life... you can always pay experts to do everything for you, but it's so much more cost effective in the long run to just spend the years/time to learn various skills for yourself.

[nekisia]

Ohhh man! The last time I remember to hit the pause button soooo many times was when I was watching "death note" back in 2006.
Pure gold!

[robertsimpson]

Man, I just found the JST YouTube channel within the last week. It is my new favorite audio-related channel!

Thank you for the high quality content! Subscribed!!

[didymuskvist]

Right now I add a compressor, EQ, stereo widener and limiter. I've only been recording, mixing and mastering for about a year so I still have alot to learn. I'm glad I'm on the right path thanks to your videos and other sources I get tips from.

[Googahgee]

I would be very careful with linear phase EQ on your master since it can cause Pre-Ringing, which can smear your transients and reduce the punch. The phase shift on your master barely matters, because you're not adding the EQ'd signal back to the original, where the out-of-phase frequencies would be reduced in level. Don't be afraid to use minimum phase filters on your mix, especially if they're shelf/bell filters that barely affect the phase.

[radiantsignals]

Wow! Nice video and in a concise matter. In a short amount of time, this video goes where other YT mastering videos don't. Great work JST! VERY helpful!!!

[careycummings]

Great explanation of the concepts, tools and process. Subscribed!

[Harrysound]

Joeys videos have been bubbling to the top of my algorithm for a few days now. I must say they are extremely well made and have really good tips.

[ayeapprove]

Really good tutorial here and I'm actually glad you didn't showcase the actual song but showed us your workflow instead. Quick and efficient!

[violamoonshape]

Hi Joey. Thanks for this concise walkthrough. Great content. I switched from Pro-C2/Pro-L2 to the Weiss DS1-MK3. No more distortion. I'm in limiting heaven.

[tarasolegov]

Thank you Joey, love your videos, I have a huge wish to get used to mixing!

[matthewchavezm.b.s]

Thx for the clarification on making separate masters for different platforms containing different loudness guidelines. I was having these ideas a few months ago and was starting to believe I was overthinking it. But to hear this from you helped me to understand that I was on the right track with how I was wanting to approach things. I've also thought it would be a good idea to make a master that was in mono for club systems and a separate one for stereo. This mainly applies to dj's who want to make good mixes that sound great in cars, headphones or any good stereo setups and then also have a mono mix thats hitting really well for club systems or any other systems that are only using mono.

[georgiabliss]

thank you. this was exactly what I needed

[rayderrich]

I am nowhere near mastering any of my half baked songs but I still insta-subbed because of this great video. Thanks!

[erictorres]

Great video . The Fab-L offers dithering inside the plugin .

[SashaGarcia]

Great video! One question: On the "EQ" section of the video, you said you like to EQ only specific frequencies that are standing out too much. Is there a reason you do this in mastering, instead of going back to the mix, diagnosing the awkward freq, and then, back to mastering (besides the "commit to the mix" philosophy)?

[Phybia]

I master my mixes! I use T-Racks classic clipper and some iZotope Ozone stuff, adding harmonics in the lower frequencies if the mix sounds thin on smaller speakers, and also its limiter which I really love! IRC4 for lyfe. Also bus compressor to start the chain off, , sounds so nice.

[Clayfacer]

the video editing in this is really good! what did you use for it?

[matusgensky]

Thank you very much, I haven't noticed anybody talking about dithering at the end of the chain, so I'm going to try that right away on a song I'm working on. BTW, please, can you, Joey, or anybody else tell me what Reaper theme is that you are using in the video?

[LAMBOURNEmusic]

Love this! Genuinely curious… would you ever consider making an all-in-one mastering plugin based on your mastering approach?