Mastering Like A Pro (Top 5 Tips for Project Studios)

With all the powerful yet affordable plugins available, getting professional masters in your DAW no longer requires expensive analog gear or a bachelor's degree. Here are 5 tips to help you get professional results, no matter what you're using to master your tracks.

🎛 Mixing Presets & DAW Templates

🎹 Synth Presets & Drum Samples

🎓 Video Training Courses

*I have the Musician Plus plan

🔈 My Studio Gear

💬 Let's Connect

Disclosure: My videos contain affiliate links to products and services I use and recommend. I may receive a small commission on sales through these links, at no additional cost to you. I appreciate your support as this helps me continue to create content for the channel!

[uptobatentertainment]

Very cool video that touches some good points. If I may add some 2 cents from the peanut gallery ...

1. Can’t mix or master what you can’t hear. That’s why the low end usually sucks on most masters nowadays cuz many engineers cant accurately hear 40 Hz unless you are in a purpose built control room or mastering studio or hav had a professional acoustician measure and treat your project studio! Headphones take tons of experience to get accurate results.

2. Calibrated studio monitors

3. I know Glenn Shick uses IEM regularly nowadays for mastering! He also has had the rooms and experience for 20+ years.

4. Cars have terrible reflections and is not an accurate place to judge mixes or masters. Expensive car audio uses DSP ( eq, filtering, time delay, crossovers etc ) same tools we use in studio to correct a car’s response.

5. reference on many diff listening systems & learn to trust your studio monitors and reference some more!

6. Mastering engineers used to have to conform to levels and cut lacquers instead of bouncing a file to disk. They had to monitor the cutting lathe in real time, in a clean room, with a lab coat, somtimes with a microscope to make sure the cuts were accurate. The music had to be mixed & mastered accordingly to its distribution medium lets pay homage and respect not take shots please!

[GHillsFinest]

I already knew bout it .. but didn't put it to practice 😂 I'm always doin it from now brother 🔥🔥

[Jamminn]

Outstanding thinking and tips, Sean. And thanks for demystifying some of the myths out there while still realizing that mastering does take work, skill and experience. And multiple playback systems! Thanks so much for posting, Sean.

[mvndyrose]

thank you so much for all your videos. I've really gained a lot of insight as a producer.

[theTerribleFamiliar]

Your channel is a goldmine. Thank you.

[mjcoolayo]

Thank you so much Sean, your tips have given me a big experience in my work, I know I will get there with your tutorials

[RogerioValgode]

Love your content, always very usefull and "into the point".

[DavidtheCrook]

I agree, a lot of it should be done in the mix

[homestudiotutorials]

Good advice ! -) i do mastering like yourself in a project studio, mainly club music, and i have been up against some of the best mastering studios and have often won the deal ! So yeah you are absolutely right ! It can be done

[MonsieurVersatile]

Sean, one of the hardest things for me is mastering a collection of songs for an album or EP. Getting the levels to sit correctly next to each other is a right royal pain, so a vid on this would be great! By the way, I highly recommend Magic AB for referencing if you can't afford something like Ozone. Really cheap, really simple and massively effective. Cheers.

[californiamusic]

Good stuff man! Love that studio desk you have.. ; ))

[danielvasquez]

Love these videos man they help so much! Do you think you could do a video someday about explaining tips/strategies and advice on getting jobs, sessions and getting employed as an audio engineer and what has helped you become successful an an engineer? That would be awesome man! Thanks again for your videos.

[dapmc]

Very helpful. I look forward to you video, I get excited when I see YouTube email aha. I really need help tightening my vocal and hole mix. Tips? The beat on the intro/outdo was 🔥. All positive luv.

[papa_da_engineer]

Fantastic tips! Can't wait to put these techniques and approaches in my next mix. Thankx Sean "all the way from the start" 💃💥💥💯❤🔥🔥🎶✌

[arenbie]

The ☝️ and only Sean Divine 🙌🏾 Good Vid Mane 💯

[cabrawl]

Hey bro I’m gonna need you to put on that lab coat cuz u a scientist with this shit lol

[ic-inkbeats]

Thanks for the great vid as always ! whats your opinion on the T-Racks Master Match plug, if you have used it before ?

[peterthomas]

Great mastering tips, Sean. I just have one question tho. I tried my newly created track on all my speakers and headset to make sure if the quality is kicking well, all of them sound dope but it sounded way different with my iphone speakers. Is there a specific tool I could use or extra knowledge that I should have in order to make my music sound well in my iphone speakers? thanks in advonce bro. keep me posteed

[DividedWarrior]

Super helpful!! Thanks Sean :D

What do you think about mixing in 432 Hz vs. 440 Hz? Just curious.

[bakura]

Hi! Do you mix tracks? If so, where can I get the information, costs, etc...?