How to approach mastering

Mastering is the last 5% that takes your track from sounding finished in your DAW to sounding finished everywhere — phones, cars, festival rigs, AirPods on a bus. It is not a rescue mission for a weak mix, and it is not a loudness contest. Going in with the right mindset matters more than the plug-ins you choose.

Mix first, master second#

If a frequency is wrong, a part is too loud, or the arrangement isn't working, no amount of mastering will fix it. The single biggest improvement you can make to a master is usually a better mix. Before you reach for a limiter, take an hour to clean up the mix bus — it will save you days of frustration.

Always reference#

Pick two or three commercial tracks in the same style and at a similar tempo. Load them into your DAW, gain-match them to your master (this is essential — louder always sounds "better" until you level-match), and toggle between yours and theirs every couple of minutes. References keep you honest about loudness, low end, brightness, and stereo width.

Work in small moves#

Mastering is the realm of fractions of a decibel. A 1 dB shelf on the master can be the difference between a track that translates and one that doesn't. If you find yourself reaching for ±6 dB on a mastering EQ, stop — go back to the mix.

Translation beats loudness#

Streaming services normalise loudness, so the race to be loudest stopped paying off a decade ago. What hasn't changed is how much a track that translates — sounds good on every system — gets played, shared, and remembered. Aim for impact and clarity at the normalised playback level, not the highest LUFS number.

The order of operations#

A safe, transparent mastering chain runs corrective EQ → bus compression → tonal EQ → saturation or clipping → (optional) stereo width → brick-wall limiter. The full breakdown is in the next two sections — but the order matters: each step prepares the signal for the next one.

Listen on everything#

Before you commit to a master, hear it on at least three systems: your main monitors, headphones, and a small consumer speaker (a phone, a laptop, a car). Each one reveals different problems. The track that sounds great on all three is the one that's actually finished.