10 Critical Mastering Mistakes You Should Avoid | Are You Listening? Season 6, EP 1

If you've mastered a song before, you've probably made at least one of these mistakes. Season 6 of 'Are You Listening?' kicks off with 10 of the most critical mastering mistakes to avoid. In episode 1, professional mastering engineer and Berklee professor Jonathan Wyner shares mastering pitfalls like mixing while mastering, using the same signal chain on every song, relying too much on the high end, and more. By the end of this video, you’ll have a strong set of mastering guidelines to follow as you master your own tracks.

Learn more about mastering with free tutorials:

Learn more about Jonathan Wyner:

Chapters:
00:00 Intro
00:58 Mistake #1 Mixing while mastering
01:37 Mistake #2 Matching your references
05:28 Mistake #3 Relying on targets
07:18 Mistake #4 Is gain-staging stupid?
09:58 Mistake #5 Forgetting to listen
10:37 Mistake #6 Relying on high-end
12:51 Mistake #7 Working to your room
14:01 Mistake #8 Using the same signal chain
15:16 Mistake #9 Relying on limiters for loudness
17:08 Mistake #10 Processing after your limiter
19:37 Outro

#iZotope #AreYouListening #mastering

SYNC ID: MB01AJHPI6YNFZC

*The spelling of Jonathan Wyner’s name is incorrect in the introduction of Season 6. Please see this video description and the Are You Listening? website for the correct spelling.

[neuroxik]

Mastering: Fix it in the mix ->
Mixing: Fix it at the source / prod

[OfficialStevenCravis]

4:42 looks like a stressful day at Wall Street!

[valentin_boes]

I love when you're showing the extremes and not only how it looks and sounds with the perfect tweaks. It is so much easier to understand a feature or what a knob is doing that way.

[JackLove]

18:29 this is a Thing I Learned Week Ago when in I was getting Master Distortion on SIDES, even though the Track was not sounding Distorted on Stereo and Mono, i spent 2-3 hours finding every possible error in a mix, Masking, cutting transients with clippers but yet still was getting distortion, i paused the work took hot tea ! and mistakenly i bypassed the Plugin after Ozone Limiter and every distortion Gone !! sometimes we learn from sudden mistakes, SO SAY NO TO ANY PLUGIN AFTER FINAL LIMITER !!

[baselinesweb]

Welcome back! I always pick up something new to think about even after 5 seasons. We all appreciate what you do.

[mikew]

Bravo iZotope! Thank you for continuing this series with Jonathan. Great stuff!

[EricLevineItsEze]

I feel like I just got the Cliffs notes in video form from my Berklee Mastering class. Great work as always and glad to see the excellent knowledge sharing with another season of Are You Listening.

[justinmoore]

Sooo ready for the new season! Love this series!!

[williamhively]

17:49 What a tender way to describe how some of us feel about our creations. They have to make their own way among all the other tracks out there. We try to set them up for success. The rest is out of our hands.

[iZotopeOfficial]

Are there any other mastering mistakes you’ve made that you think others to avoid? Share in the comments!

[musicforworldpeacerecords]

Great to have you back! I missed watching your very informative video tutorials.

[AlbertNorris]

Very informative videos, Jonathan. Thank you for doing these. (Cool T shirt, too). 😀

[DMMirval]

Thanks for the clear and useful presentation. Congrats !

[UriShavitFineArt]

Love your show. So clear and easy to understand. Keep it up !

[AnnexationMusic]

As someone who has a copy of Ozone pretty much to master my own stuff exclusively, I'm definitely guilty of trying to zero in on a 'one size fits all' chain. I do think there's loads of learning potential in experimentation and trying something new every time, but it can be hard to motivate oneself to go for it. Hearing Jonathon advocate for it is inspiring.

[SoundFreqsOnline]

This is a great video. Time well spent. Thanks Ozone and Jonathan

[notyourtypebeats]

wow, that´s some real good content! Thanks for sharing :)

[nicklegendmusic]

Best combination using Ozone 10 in Wavelab Pro 11

[witnessthelightmusic]

You guys have been at the cornerstone of my audio addiction… thanks for all the knowledge and the best tools in the industry.

[oskarwroniewicz]

I could happily listen to you talk all day. We are really fortunate to be blessed with your knowledge and the impecabble presentation