Why You Should (Still) Send Your Music To A Mastering Engineer

Some upcoming musicians, producers, and DJs think that they can do their mix using some music mastering tips or recent audio mastering apps services. While these services are convenient and cheaper, online mixing and mastering services have their limitations.

When you want to go commercial, stay relevant and popular in the music industry, you definitely will need a professional mastering touch on your mix.

The kind of sound output that your tracks will need in order to be distributed in the music industry, sell well and be accepted by audio professionals is such that you can only get from a professional mastering engineer. Apart from getting a smooth, wrinkle free mix with unique characteristic pinned to your style of music from professional engineers, you stand to gain much more than what you pay.

• Mastering engineers have sophisticated, high quality facilities and sound monitoring devices lined up in their studios at your services. It is such that you cannot compare or ever find in a home studio unless the person running it is specifically a mastering engineer. Mastering engineers experience and expertise is far beyond the regular technical addition of CD subcodes, PQ or ISRC coding.

• Mastering engineers take their time to verify all sound decisions using several examples in different listening environments to ensure your song sounds as it is supposed to in every possible playback situation. Some sound processing software at professional mastering engineers’ disposal is rare to find everywhere. The real mastering engineer (yes, there are imposters) have years of experience under their belts. Most of them have built in home studios so they can be comfortable while they mix the tracks they are assigned. However, just because they work from home does not mean they are less professional.

• Mastering studios or rooms do not need to be huge, in fact most are smaller in size and are built by acoustic designer and engineers to ensure the mastering engineer gets a flat response. When looking for a mastering engineer, do not look for the gear or studio, but look for the experience and client list. Experience is key with this part of the industry.

Another reason to send your tracks to a professional engineer is because he or she can stand by their work and ensure it gets done on the day it is supposed to. They will give you the professional sound you are looking for as well as prepare your song for radio promotion, CD distribution as well as music streaming sites such as Spotify, Apple Music, Soundcloud and many more.

• The job of a mastering engineer is to put professional frequency touches on your music. You will not hear your own mix and music the way your audience or people out there will hear it, so it is in your best interest to give this part of the music process to someone who has done it many times and knows what the people want. In this industry, it is not what you want, it's what the people want that matters. Since mixing skills and how good the reference sound monitors are, can affect finished jobs and in-turn have effect on the demand for your music, it is best to engage the service of master engineers if you want to build a professional image.
• Different sound sets and music players have varying playback sounds and output, as can be observed with car radio, home sound sets, club speakers and online streaming areas. For your music to play well in all these playback devices and platforms, a professional mastering engineer is needed. This will bring your music to the next level, it will allow your fans to listen to your music in any environment they choose. They want to hear you on the radio, they want to hear you in clubs. Give them what they want so you in-turn get what you want.

The fastest way to make huge impact in the music world is with a quality sound and continuous connections with audience as you play. This all starts with professional mastering. A good mastering engineer will help with all needed technicalities such as the masters of your tracks for the radio as well as CD and digital distribution. They also are another connection you gain in the industry that may be able to help you further your career.