Why I Don't Do Mastering as a Pro Mixer 

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We have heard a lot of masters made by famous mastering studios that simply weren't so good. Most have also realized that they ruined their work by sending it to "mastering"...

I used to recommend my clients to get the mixes mastered by someone else, but that usually meant they'd give it to a friend who did it for free and ruined the mix. So I often master my own mixes because the alternative is usually worse. It's case by case, but at my level I'm fine with it.

That's exactly why I glue on a fake beard before I start mastering. Because then I'm someone else. From a parallel universe, so to speak.

You can use this argumentation for every step of music creation. I'm stuck with my own ears and my own brain, so I let others create sounds, others create samples, others create tracks, others create my songs, others doing the mixing and others mastering my songs, and finally I let others listening to my music

Why I master my own mixes: I'm POOOOOOR

Love this. Love your approach and attitude. You are definitely one of the most valuable sources of info on YT. Thank you, Jordan!

I’ve seen the comparison videos where you sent mixes off to a bunch of mastering engineers. Some are good, some are bad. And some are pretty awful.. seems like unless you know somebody and can give input/revisions then it’s a crap shoot. That person also needs to be affordable for you or the artist. And let’s be real, most people ain’t got the money for that. My advice for people would be to just do it yourself and try your best to be objective. Take some time away from the final mix, come back and load up a couple instances of the mix, keep one clean (and volume matched) and A/B when you think you’ve got the master sounding good. Listen to see what you’ve done to the low end, listen to how each instrument in the track has changed, whether you’ve maintained clarity, listen to the difference in the stereo image (width vs depth, that sorta thing), etc. Just be mindful of what you’re doing and make sure everything you do is with intent; if you don’t have a clear reason in mind for something you’re doing then don’t do it. Yeah, there is someone out there that could do it better, but there’s also someone out there who could have recorded and mixed it better too, that’s true of anything in life. Just do your best and if you’re happy with it then it’s good. The advice given to amateur/independent musicians and engineers is so often “just spend more money” and all it ends up doing is hurting the amateur and helping the professionals. I recorded an album on my phone and got nothing but praise on how good it sounds, and got requests from just about every band I know to record their next albums. Does it sound like a record recorded/mixed/mastered in pro studios by all the best engineers with the best equipment and experience? Fuck no. I can hear all kinds of problems with it that I just didn’t have the ability or knowledge to solve. But it sounds better than the vast majority of small artists could ask for, and that’s certainly good enough for me. And again, several of them listened to it and immediately asked me to record their band. Just do it and do your best guys.

I don't think Jordan can win this battle when there are so many top level metal producers mixing and mastering their own work; Tue Madsen, Jens Bogren, Buster Odeholm. Jordan doesn't feel like he can do both but there's other producers who feel like they can and are getting results so...

Wait, you mixed Rosalia ?!?!?! We have been waiting patiently for the next single since then, It was such an incredible track.

I recently finished school in mixing and mastering so I do both at home to hone my skills. I download multitracks and do mix and master on around 2 songs at a time. I don't find so difficult to know when I feel like mixing is done because I feel like as long as I feel the result is balanced and representative of what I'm aiming for, I can go to mastering. Then, like you said, I just try to make it better, louder and to improve the balance and overall color of the song. I'm very amateur but both processes feel very complementary and I love both.

I totally agree with you. I see so many people selling mixing and mastering services, and I always wonder how they can do both. To me, mastering is a whole separate process from mixing. It's about taking the mixed song and making it sound its best as possible. I think a lot of people think that mastering is just about adding compression and limiting to the mix bus. But that's not really the case. Mastering is about making subtle adjustments to the overall sound of the song. It's about bringing out the best in the music. I also think that mastering is a two-person job. It's hard to get a different perspective about your own music, so it's helpful to have someone else listen to it and give feedback. A good mastering engineer will be able to hear things that you might not be able to hear, and they'll be able to make the necessary adjustments to make the song sound its best.

whats up with your lighting ? Studio transition? Great channel just want to see it maintain quality

I 100% agree. It took me quite a while to find a mastering engineer I trust, but every time I send a song out for mastering, he cleans up some sort of frequencies that I become blind to after mixing a song for hours, and makes it sound bigger than I know how to. I "master" my playthroughs for youtube but they don't sound nearly as good as when Frederico works his magic. Great topic Jordan!

sounds like they added more mid range and an imager to the mastering track thank you for doing this appreciate it Jordan learning everyday

Nice video! any thoughts on what you add to the master bus in your session before you send it to the master engineer, should it be totally empty or is some compression and EQ alright?

This is why i love Studio One. We do the mixing and when feeling that it's done it can be send to a seperate mastering project with a view that is focused on mastering. So pretty much switching to a whole different work state. Love it. Especially when mastering multiple songs for an album for example. Love mastering..mixing..not so much so i would perhaps do it the other way around. 😅

Love you Jordan. Your course was the bee's Knees

Once the producer makes the elements balanced in their own space in the context of the full mix, each track can be sent to a mix engineer to check the levels, check the stereo placement, and add flavor. Once that's done, the mix engineer can send the master track to a mastering engineer to make sure it's loud enough without added distortion and to make sure the full track has a competitive eq curve. OR One person can do all of these in three stages.

I find it fascinating when I get calls from (mostly rappers) that say "How much is it to be 'radio ready' mixed & mastered?" and then I tell them my hourly rate and they say "I wanna do six songs . . . in an HOUR"

Also my flow is Compose mix in Cubase then take a break. Open Wavelab 11 Pro and basically utilize Imager, Compression, Limiter Saturation and Levels. Any issues I return back to the mix session and make small adjustments. Never would Master in a DAW only Wavelab.

I never master my own stuff or or other mixes I've done but I have masterd a bunch of other stuff, including for vinyl.

Some of the modern tools like IK Master Match, Submission Audio Flatline, and Sonible Smart Limit make it pretty easy to get good level easily without any outboard. I use Master Match to see how my mix compares to my favorite references, then make the necessary adjustments then check Master Match again. I would like to see you show your process of how you check levels and export for progress checks - are you putting a limiter on exports for clients?

Who mastered the song you showed us on this video?

Never seen someone speak so many facts wow

When I was asked when I start master my mixes I had the same answer :) One key element of mastering is a different set of ears what you normally don't have if you did the mix :) in cases where I deliver the final product I put a thing or two on the masterbus - but I wouldn't call it mastering it's basically just for bringing up the levels

Very true Jordan

Makes total sense. I tip my cap to those who spend hours upon hours listening to the same music over and over again, for, both, the mixing and the mastering stages. As someone who records and produces their own music, by the time I do my own rudimentary mixes, that's the way it sounds, so I'm not even that open to any further modification, which is why I don't master my music, beyond basic EQ and level-up. If I did master, I would certainly use someone else with far more experience and a fresh set of ears. Wishing success to all, cheers.

Great advice, I've found two people who are excellent Master engineers and I know they improve on my vision not detract from it.

I get the mix as perfect as I can get it and then the next day master it with a fresh set of ears. I divide up each part of the song because the verses will require a different touch than the choruses etc etc and get really detailed into what I can do to make the whole thing better.

The point you made can work both ways when it comes to the last 5-10%. I wouldn't want to take all this time to make a great mix just to have a mastering engineer print the record with some smiley face EQ and a cranked Oxford Inflater effect fader. Or better yet, when guys try to MBcomp and end up destroying the mix but try to convince you otherwise....

Outsourced mastering just isnt required as much as it used to be anymore, we are now utilizing the tools that integrate with our workflow in a way that leans on mastering techniques such as imaging, dynamic compression, saturation and limiting. Alot of dudes out there even use these at the beginning of their mixing, which is called 'Top Down', and without this workflow I doubt they could even mix properly now. Im somewhere in the middle, if you happen to have an excellent mastering engineer that understands who you are as a mixer and your directives, you can definitely alleviate the pressure on yourself and send it off for a polish. On the other hand, with the amount of mastering plug-ins out there, if you got the time to learn and the workflow to impliment this, it can be perfectly fine for one to mix AND master their own or others music with professional results.

Damn, that analogy with the author and editor hit me

00:50 That's why I've developed a process for mixing and mastering that adheres to a top-down workflow, allowing for constant alternation between mixing and mastering processes. This approach results in a highly organic and superior quality sound. Having the ability to hear your final mastering chain while mixing and producing is incredibly advantageous. Of course this technique requires alot of confidence in skill and room response/equipment.

i've always thought the same, if your mixing is just fine why do need mastering? PD: 2:06 what song is that? it rocks

In real good restaurants there are cooks doing the cooking and others that are specialist just in arranging the food on the plates. I think thats somehow similar with mixing and mastering.

I think alot of the issue is most people do their own mixing nowadays. So people spend all this time mixing their song(s), just to send it to someone else to have the final say. I do agree that mixing and mastering should be seperate things, but I don't know if alot of people are willing to give up that control, unless someone else is doing the recording and mixing. Ive sent out songs to be mastered, some by people who supposedly worked with big name artists, and I wasn't impressed. So, mastering can be a tough thing

Even if you don't intend to master your own music, it's still important, I believe, to have an understanding of what Mastering is, what it can do and what you can do as a mixer to get it as close as possible to what a mastering engineer can do.. working backwards from end to beginning is really important for understanding what you can do to improve your own work. I'm a mastering engineer, I do master my own work sometimes, but doing a course on mastering and practicing it for several months to years on other peoples work really helped me get my mixes better because I understood what all the tools do and how to get the absolute best out of everything - from EQ to Compression and especially limiting and clipping which I use more aggressively and intentionally in my mixing now. Also, I think it's worth doing a master of your finished mix - and adding it to what you send to the mastering engineer so they might have an idea of what you were going for in terms of overall sound. Yes, a good mastering engineer has a distance from the track, they weren't involved in all the intricacies so they hear the song as a whole, rather than focusing in on all the ear candy and tiny parts you've spent a week putting in you thought were important. It is REALLY hard to objectively distance yourself from a track that you've made from scratch.. but its a useful tool if you can achieve that state of mind - even while mixing the track because it lets you discard parts that are irrelevant if they add nothing overall.

The amount of skill it takes to put out a good master THESE days is TOTALLY different than 30 yrs ago when engineers were mastering for vinyl. Getting music ready for vinyl is completely different than what’s done these days. Now you can master on headphones with plugins and it has the potential to be every bit as good and indistinguishable as what Howie, or George, or Mayor are doing in dedicated rooms. I’ve mastered stuff in my home suite and have had people who usually go to Grammy winning guys tell me it’s as good, indistinguishable, or even better than what they have paid those guys to do. The amount of technology we have access to these days makes this very easy. now mixing is a completely different story at this stage in the game. You still need a great deal of skill to mix an album and have it sound good and hold up to anything considered professional, or record ready. But with mastering the simply isn’t the case in Jordan has proved this a couple of times on his channel.

I prefer to master my own stuff. I don't think you can fully understand the mix unless you listen through a proper mastering chain and then make final tweaks after that. I have had some major label stuff I've done where it was required to send the mix to a top rated mastering house and the mastering did not beat my ref. I get better results myself. Further my turnarounds are fast and often times changes are made right up to the last minute. Finally I am doing ATMOS mixes on most releases now and the best result is to print mastered stems so overall it's just a matter of necessity for the projects I work on.

anyone doing music production in a DAW in 2024 should be learning to mix and master their own stuff. With Ozone and Gulfoss and other stuff like this you can get very good results now. We don't need to pay other ppl. I mean you can if you want but why

This is what I try to explain to my clients. They come to me because they heard the final result of mixes, but don’t realize I send them to my mastering engineer… I think it’s also best to find a mastering engineer who compliments your style of mixing and stick with them.

IDK... to me, the mix is the canonical form of the song, where everything is balanced. Then mastering is getting it ready for a certain format and/or market segment. One person may or may not have the skillset and mindset to do both. As a common example, I'm damn sure not gonna master for vinyl.

100%. I always get into "discussions" about this, with other mixers who master their own mixes. Never understood this. If the mastering stage is intended to fix problems, bring out the best in the mix while offering some quality control, why wouldnt i get it right in the mix? I have no idea what to enhance, in mastering. I've already brought it as far as i could.

understood and agreed. but how do you deal with clients expectations? like they don't wanna bother dealing with 1 mixing engineer and then bother with a separate mastering engineer. they might not even know that there is a difference. they want the full package and you want to control price and delivery time.

I think if you're gonna master your own tracks it's best to step away from it after mixing and give yourself a few days to clear your perspective. Obviously it would be kind of pointless to go directly from mixing to mastering with the same track. But I do think there is a shift in mindset there that has to do with moving from fine details to broad strokes.

I've always done everything myself from start to finish. I don't really see mastering as a separate thing, what I export from the mix session is the finished piece. I recorded and mixed my friend's band's first EP, and they wanted it to be mastered by someone else. So I sent them my master as well as unmastered versions. It sounded pretty much the same as my masters when they released it. I've made a lot of crappy mixes, I'm still making crappy mixes today, but it's not really something that mastering engineer is going to fix, and why would I want them to fix my flaws when I should be doing better on my end? You don't even need to be amazing to create something special. I uploaded St. [b]Anger to this channel that had 450 subscribers in January and we're just under 300,000 views on the full album video alone. It's not the best mix in the world, but it's still rad as heck and I've gotten tons of positive feedback. It's definitely a nice thought to have someone else put the finishing touches on my music, but I couldn't give a damn at the moment. 😅

You're assuming that there's still a problem with the mix. My mix sounds fine and I can't wait to master it! There's absolutely no good reason not to master your own mix, if you have the proper setup and software!

The natural switch to mastering is when I've mixed all the songs on the album. It is indeed a different and separate process, because I need to hear each song in the context of the album to make them jive with each other, and it's often several months between the mixing and mastering sessions

Truth Hurts 😁🍻🤘

But a spelling mistake in a book would go back to the manuscript - that is, going back to fix it in the mix.

You are 100% right. We hear the results of people thinking they can do it all with countless amateur results on Spotify where so many songs sound like poorly produced demos. But you need to find a quality mastering engineer. Not just another dude sitting in their bedroom who thinks they understand this very specialised craft.

I “master” most of my own mixes out of convenience and because most of my clients don’t have the budget for outside mastering. If I had the option I would 100% have my mixes be mastered by someone else solely to have the extra ear/perspective on what I’ve done. Another thing I think a mastering engineer should be responsible for is having a conversation with the mix engineer about minor changes that can be made to make their job easier.

Why does ur thumbnail pic look like a mugshot?! 😆😭

yyyyeeaaahh i s'pose. still gonna do it tho lol

Honestly i'm not sure if mastering is actually required in modern production pipeline. This might be just a historical processing step, which was required for vinyl preporation etc. Now when we are not dealing with consoles and vynil, everything just could be done in a single daw session

I've been working with an artist for about a year now, and after receiving 7-8 masters that weren't cutting it for him, he asked me to do it. He hasn't gone to anyone else since. I just make sure I'm happy with the mix, give myself a week or two away from it, then pull up the bounce with mastering in mind. It's usually pretty obvious what needs to be done and I make sure not to take more than 10-15mins, otherwise I may do to much.

Where to draw a line, when mixing stops and mastering begins? For me it's easy: I mix until I feel everything except the 2-bus processing is ready and at this point the CPU is usually at max and I wouldn't even be able to put a limiter etc. in it. I export the mix and open a new project for mastering. I mix at 48 kHz and master at 96 kHz because in mastering there's only one track, the CPU can take it. I use a lot of Acustica Nebula libraries and they often sound better at 96 kHz. I've tried pro mastering engineers but nowadays I master my own mixes. I do music as a hobby and don't want to pay for mastering anymore. Many times the masterers don't even pay enough attention to your mix if you don't have a name. Especially the big studios just put some noob to do it and grab your money. Borderline cheating what it is. I realize my own masters won't have the same quality as a fresh eared good pro engineer would accomplish but as this is a hobby, I also enjoy the process and I'm getting better at it slowly but steadily.

Pravilnye veshi govorish. Hyli tyt rassygdat. Музыка субъектовная штука. И мастеринг - это понты, придуманные всякими CLA) Чтобы делать поменьше работы, но брать за нее много денег) Всю основную работу делают рекорд инженеры и те, кто занимается миксом трека. Зачастую, все этапы делает один человек) Было бы странно, если бы нужно было бы оплачивать, за такие услуги, таким людям отдельно )

so the main question is the final mix condition before mastering. and the answer: u know it is ready when u can't make it better. then u send it to the mastering guy (different set of ears=)) to make it more round, to make it shine. reason: it is much better time management and better result.

DIY mastering is like calling your brushing and flossing dentistry.

Someone send this video to all the guys on RU-vid with “mastering” tutorials that are just about which plugins to put on your master track

1000%

I kinda liked the mix better than the mastered version.

I can bet with my life ! Expensive equipment doesn't matter nowadays! Especially on the hip hop field 😂

In an ideal world the mastering engineer should give the song the best possible finishing touch. But in real life my experience is that mastering my own mixes gives me better results than any mastering service that I could afford. Maybe if you would spend 1000$ per master then the result would be better than my own work, but its not worth it unless you are sure the song will generate a much higher income. For me, if I want the best possible result I have to do it by myself. But I recommend to make a 2weeks break between mixing and mastering and not listen to the song in the time between.

In my case, I found that people doing mastering these days are aiming for a very different sound and working with very different mixes, working to very different expectations. I don't want a 'modern' sound that is flat as a board and ten miles wide 😲 I'd love to be able to have someone else do the mastering, but I have had to bite the proverbial bullet and take it on myself.

what about mixing well enough that it doesn't need to be mastered?

A lot of people are missing the point here I think. Just because you have worked with a bad mastering engineer before doesn't make you any less blind to your own shortcomings in your mixes. Obviously finding a good mastering engineer is the first step here, one that actually takes your mixes to the next level instead of ruining it.

Im kinda blown away how you dont understand how to switch hats on this, mostly bc I have a lot of respect for you and I know your ears are great!! But in terms of the actual meanings for the word, mixing is mixing the sounds and mastering is the master of sounds. How else could we say this? Mixing is the equalization, dynamics, effects and leveling of sounds individually. Mastering is the equalization, dynamics, leveling of the sounds as a whole. I know you understand this, and this is why Im confused why you think the mixer cant also master. For years, I've always created 3 projects. A writing tracking project, a mix project, and then a master project. With each session I have templates that help me to wear different hats and think of the music in different ways. For example, when Im writing music Im not worried about getting the mid range perfect on my acoustic guitar for the part. Unless, its distracting me from writing. I fully understand this is a mixing decision and I trust that when I export the stems that I will have something workable for the mix. Same thing with mixing, when I export my mix Im trusting I'll have something workable for my mastering stage. I don't think anyone knows how your songs should sound more than you do, at least from an idealistic stand point and not a skill talent perspective. I think if you have the ability to master your stuff you should, and if you also have the ability to hire someone you should also do that. When you feel you dont need to hire someone is when you know its ok to not hire them anymore imo. Its subjective anyways at the end of the day. peace brother and love your vids, I always look forward to your new posts. Im a fan for sure

Mastering is bringing the song to commercial level while making sure it translates on most playback systems. It's good to have a second set of ears, but saying it's not real mastering if you do it yourself is just asinine. David Gnozzi comes to mind.

listen to "hotel California" being played live by the Eagles and then hear what a real master sounds like by a pro.The band would never have produced such an amazing product by themselves.

Mastering for us do it all people is just putting a maximizer on the mix. There is really no mastering “process”. The example given is a little wider and louder. Width can be done as part of the mix…

Agreed… I never claim to do real mastering!

people approach mixing and especially mastering with way to many little tricks , like, does it sound good ? Then its ready to go idk why people make it sound like its rocket science.. its literally about sounding good for the genre that you are doing... many people use 300 compressors, 500 resonators, 1400 Equalizers etc etc, but when in reality the more plugins you use, the less you know about mixing... go watch real old school mixers and masters doing their work, they only need an EQ and 1 compressor lol

I agree that if you're "mastering" your own mixes, you kind of end up just continuing to mix. However for me, that raises the question of why you would even need a master. I already try to get stuff to sound the way I want it during mixing. Do I wanna give it to someone to possibly go and change it for the worse in mastering? I don't know. It's not that I'm ever 100% happy with my mixes, but I'm pretty sure that if someone more experienced was to improve the final result, that would be happening on the mixing level. That's not gonna be a function of mastering.

Today there is no such thing as mastering. It used to be a process to get it to a medium. I do agree though, it should have another term, perhaps a mix health check. It’s another set of ears and hardware you don’t have.

For me mastering is another fresh perspective on the mix. How can I have another fresh perspective on my mix? 😂 I mean that is for me the focal point of mastering

Nobody was born being good at mixing or mastering. If you can change you can do anything. Amundsen Studio offers sound design, production, mixing, mastering in dolby atmos and 10th order ambisonics - Why? Because if there's a will there's a way. "Our only limitations are those we set up in our own minds." - Napoleon Hill.

My issue with mastering is that it doesn't improve things. Even the best master is, in the end, the same total quality score as the mix before mastering. Something was gained yes. But something was lost too in equal amounts! I almost always prefer the mix turned up VS the less dynamic master. So, to play devil's advocate I would say modern mastering totally sucks, is completely unnecessary, and people should stop doing it because it's making their music the same or worse as it was before mastering and is being done for the wrong reason in the first place: loudness.

Mastering is just mixing on the Master Buss

I'm shocked u don't do ur own mastering or even consider it! 😱 I can understand ur reasoning, but I also understand u can #afford it... For us homemixers mastering is just an extension of mixing. And like u said, it's just the last 5-10%, so it's not a big deal. But unlike u said, there's no fear of ruining the mix, 'cos IF one is a good mixer, then there's no way one can ruin it with mastering IF one has basic knowledge of it. BUT a random mastering person CAN ruin ur mix! 🙉 And IF one is a good mixer, then there's not a lot the mastering will improve, as we could hear in ur example! Your mix was perfect!! 🔥 The master surely brought in some new frequencies and was of a new flavor, but I'm not sure if it was necessarily "better"... As a thrash fan, I liked the OG drier mix 😀 What it really comes down to is, is the person willing to spend money to get that extra 10% (if lucky) OR is he willing to settle for the 5% he can achieve himself? 'Cos there's also the risk involved when hiring a masterer that u might get 0 improvement for all the money spent OR even get a worse than before end result (ie. cranking the mix to compressed shitz)! 🙈 Ps. What was the song in ur example?!? It was the most METAL song I've ever heard on ur videos! Like pure good ol' thrash!! 😍🤘

No

Who cares about mastering? Its 2024, if it sounds good SHIP IT, thats it

Where do you draw the line between mixing and mastering? Your answer is in the question. There is no line. Because in the digital age there's no longer such a thing as mastering or a master recording. A MASTER RECORDING, let that sink in. Now it's just .wav files being copied from hard drive to hard drive with no limit. It's all terminology from a bygone era that is now being used to describe processes that are now much different and have very different outcomes than the original ones. Now I'm not saying that your points about different people, skillsets and mindsets aren't true, they are, but let's call it what it is - it's putting finishing touches on a stereo mixdown, technically using the same gear and skills as you would on a multichannel recording, but with a different approach. It's basically a second opinion. It is NOT mastering and has not been for a long time.

"Mastering doesn't cost that much money" unfortunately, this is not true outside of U.S. Personally, where I live, the actual price of mastering (dolar converted to my country's currency) a song is not enough to pay the expenses, so they raise up the price to absurd in so many levels... I'm talking about $200 or $300 per song... So, the only way I found to get the maximum quality of my productions was to sit hours, and hours, and hours and try to figure out what they do to sound like Pro... I've been doing this the last 14 years from now... Actually, I even figured out what they did to your Rosalia Mix already... Those "Mastering AI" online don't do the job quite well if the mix is not great, but I think they could do an excelent job with Rosalia Mix too... Well, this is just my rant about how difficult is this job where I live... So difficult that I was forced to learn by myself how to reach the Pro level so I could release my productions about the things I like officially... VGMusic and Anime Music stuff

There is no use in mastering anymore...that was for tape and back in the day. All you need is levelling if you are doing an album.

I too don’t agree with you, my mastering Iam satisfied than to be destroyed by someone else.

The videos showing thousand dollar mixes vs $50 fiver mixes prove the bigger name studios have become a $ machine. They figure because they are a known name no one is going to say the master sounds bad. It's to bad. I actually was going to send my tracks to master that was displayed on here and I am glad I am going elsewhere. Absolute shame how terrible and awful it sounded especially for a lot of $. I would love Ted Jensen but I can't afford. 😢

Just stop projecting Your weakness on us..we took over the world with our all in one home studios/multifunctional music producers

I couldn't disagree more with the premise of this video. For years music production and post production were specialised skill done only by professionals. The industry was heavily monitored by gatekeepers who made it impossible for aspiring artists to get into this space. Studio equipment was astronomically expensive so you either prayed for a record deal or paid for studio time. But ones the home studio gained traction, many started to take the time to learn these skills that were previously reserved for professionals. More artists become independent and the pros had to adjust to a market that was changing in a way that was less beneficial to them. My point is if everyone could AFFORD to just pay someone else to do the job, there'd be no need for this video. The reason ppl master their own music is predominantly because they can't afford to pay someone else to do it. The second reason is because they simply can't do it themselves. At 1:03, the guy in the video explained that he tried mastering, but he gave up when he couldn't get it right and "messed up" his songs. At 1:20 he says, "for [mastering] to be a different thing requires a different person in a different space with a dedicated process." Based on these two statements alone, it's pretty clear that if you acquire the skill, you don't need to pay someone else to do the job. All you'd need to do is change your space and have a dedicated process. I've also found that referencing during mixing and mastering reduces guesswork immensely. For those that don't have the right space and all the expensive gear, this will change your life. I also find that listening to each revision in a different environment (the car test almost never fails) provides some much needed objectivity. The downside to mastering your own songs is that doing it right can be an arduous painstakingly long process (going back and forth between the studio and the car can be tedious). And if you've already dedicated hours during production and mixing you may simply not have the mental wherewithal to dedicate yet more time to the same song during mastering. It's worthwhile learning how to master. And even if you don't mix your own songs, it's a skill you could use to help others.

Maybe for a major label but spotify if your 90% there it won't make or break your song. Cosumers wouldn't be able to tell the difference between 90% and mastered unless the were audiofile listeners. Just my 2cents

I just get the mix as "perfect" as I can with -1.7dB of headroom left, &then wait a week or three before mastering, lol. Made a big ass difference for me.

I don't agree

agree, mastering should only be done by a professional strictly with hardware...mastering software is a hoax

I agree with you, in principle. However, you're ignoring new artists who can't afford hundreds (or thousands) of dollars for mastering services. After all, your videos (though extremely helpful to new artists/mixers/producers) are probably not a regular staple of many established professionals. I should have lead with the fact that I enjoy your channel and incorporate some of your techniques.

Sorry brother but I wholeheartedly disagree. What you’re describing is not a truth. It’s an opinion. And that’s just one way you CAN do it. I master my own mixes and I do it in a different environment in a whole separate process. You literally said it HAS to be done by a different person. Not true. That’s just one way to do it. And also there’s different ways to master. So yes. Even someone simply bringing the mix up to a good level and then rendering in the proper format IS mastering. It’s not what I do. I do a LOT more than that. But to each their own. Chris Lord-alge said it best. As long as it SOUNDS GOOD then the method doesn’t matter! Just because you can’t do it or don’t like what you end up with doesn’t mean others can’t either. I absolutely do get why you’re saying. And I’m sure it’s helpful to get a different set of ears on it. But as long as someone is happy with the results they can do it any way they please. Hope this helps someone. God bless yall.

i´ll stop watching 95% of the channels i subbed, i´m betting on it, this is going too far also, F**K plugins oh yeah, mix sounded better than master btw

I think with the quality of today's recording gear mastering is almost useless. Here's an example 2:00

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