mix and master

Posted: Wed Jul 16, 2008 11:10 pm

what are the differences between mix and master, i mean if i mix a song using eq compression and effects on a track, how would i know that it requires mastering after that. where does mixing ends and mastering begins?

Posted: Thu Jul 17, 2008 1:53 am

Mixing is done by you, you set the volumes of the tracks and the sounds of the tracks to create a mix.
Mastering is done by someone with damn fine ears (or should be) and sweet hardware.
It's just the final polish for your turd.

Posted: Thu Jul 17, 2008 3:26 am

if i have good ears and decent equipment, (decent ears i have), how would i know that some thing i've made is now ready to be mastered. what is the most important parts in mastering, that you don't do in mixing. is it compression , eqing.etc

Posted: Thu Jul 17, 2008 3:36 am

It's those things, if you've done you job perfectly then just a little eq, and making of the discs in a professional way. Masters, the discs you use to get copies made.

The most important reason to get you music Mastered is a fresh set of good ears and some awesome monitors and a primo eq.

I know nothing though.
And I'm shopping for a Mastering Eng.

Posted: Wed Aug 06, 2008 9:06 am

Deusx wrote:

if i have good ears and decent equipment, (decent ears i have), how would i know that some thing i've made is now ready to be mastered. what is the most important parts in mastering, that you don't do in mixing. is it compression , eqing.etc

Mastering (pre-mastering) is taking a set of songs and creating one cohesive product. In my opinion, the most important part of the mastering engineers job is creating the playlist and error free pre-master that gets sent to the replicator. A lot of people think that mastering (pre-mastering) is a magic pill that fixes their engineering ills, but it doesn't. Mastering (pre-mastering) is about taking a bunch of different songs, and having them all make sense together. When you think of mixing you are taking individual instruments and making adjustments at track level to make the mix make sense. Essentially the mastering engineers job is similar, but instead of adjusting the balance between instruments we are adjusting the balance between songs.

An ME should have a good ear, a good monitoring chain, and a good room. All of the gear in the world is meaningless if those three things aren't met.

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