Once all is said and done, applying the final touches to your track – stereo enhancement, adjusting loudness levels and a deft use of dedicated mastering compressors – can make or break your hard work. While it’s become something of a cliché to describe mastering as a ‘dark art’, there remains some mystery around the processes and approaches that only experience can truly shed light on.
In previous decades, mastering engineers could charge a pretty penny for sprucing up your track, but now we can enjoy online mastering via AI and, better yet, the ability to tackle the process ourselves at home. These have made what was once the reserve of razoreared experts another learnable skill. Mastering, whether it be in stereo or via stems, ensures that your track will stand out, and meet the release standards of other tracks on the radio, streaming platforms and more, guaranteeing consistent volume levels.