6 Benefits of Using a Mastering DAW 

You’re welcome! Thanks for checking it out 🔥

Indeed it does! Thanks for mentioning that. This is actually one of my favourite Pro Tools features.

@@BlackGhostAudio do you prefer Wavelab or Sequoia as mastering DAW?

@@DP-hw9uq I like WaveLab a lot. Unfortunately, I’m not as familiar with Sequoia. I’d only really recommend getting a mastering DAW if you frequently find yourself mastering entire albums. There are cool features like integrated LUFS normalization that are great time savers. If you mostly release singles, mastering tracks with a normal DAW is perfectly fine.

I've actually used Studio One 4 and I love it. It's probably the most well-rounded DAW out there. I still need to work with it a little more if I'm going to make a comparison, but I've been really impressed by Studio One so far.

@@BlackGhostAudio Looking forward to your evaluation! Thanks!

There are a few limitations, like a lack of full DDP support and DVD audio support, but the Elements version is still going to be helpful if you're mastering full albums. This webpage provides a full comparison of the different Wavelab versions: www.steinberg.net/wavelab/compare-editions/

@@BlackGhostAudio awesome thank you for that! I'm super excited to have found your channel!

Sure, it can be turned off but the majority of people have this feature enabled by default. The average listener probably doesn’t know that this feature exists or that it can be disabled. Even if they do, it’s preferable to keep this feature enabled because loudness normalization creates a more consistent listening experience for music consumers. With the goal of catering to the largest number of listeners possible, it doesn’t make sense to sacrifice sound quality (distortion, tone, dynamics, etc.) in favor of loudness. A small percentage of listeners may disable loudness normalization, but I’d rather cater to the majority. I’m not sure what you mean by “bad quality versions of songs.” Most streaming services apply a static gain reduction to songs to normalize them, which has no effect on the sound quality. If the song is too quiet, either a limiter will be applied or the song will be left untouched; it depends on the streaming service. If you master your music to around -13 LUFS, you should be able to avoid this processing entirely. Mastering it louder doesn’t provide any competitive edge. For the most part, loudness normalization is a good thing that improves the consumer listening experience. It encourages artists to focus on sound quality, rather than loudness maximization at the expense of clarity, dynamics, and tonal balance.

For a single released through streaming services, I completely agree. This type of software is best suited for mastering engineers who are constantly working on full albums and want to decrease their turnaround time.