what is audio mastering?

Audio mastering is the final stage of the audio production process, where a finalised mix is prepared for distribution. It involves fine-tuning the sound, ensuring consistency across an album or project, and optimizing the track for various playback formats and devices. 

Here's a more detailed explanation

Preparation for Distribution - Mastering ensures that the audio is ready for various formats, including CDs, vinyl, streaming services, and radio broadcasts. 

Consistency and Cohesion - Mastering helps create a cohesive sound across an entire album or project, ensuring that tracks sound unified and avoid abrupt changes in volume or equalization. 

Loudness and Dynamics - Mastering involves optimizing the loudness levels of the track, often measured in LUFS, which means Loudness Units Full Scale - an integrated measurement of the length and volume to create an average volume reading, while preserving its dynamic range and ensuring it sounds consistent across different playback systems. 

Technical Refinement - Mastering includes techniques like equalization (EQ), compression, limiting, and stereo enhancement to refine the sound and achieve the desired aesthetic. 

Final Quality Check - Mastering is the final opportunity to address any minor defects or inconsistencies in the mix and ensure that the track sounds polished and ready for release. 

Distinct from Mixing - Mastering is distinct from the mixing process, which focuses on balancing individual components such as the comparative levels of the instruments and vocal parts within a single song, while mastering optimizes the entire track for distribution and addresses the overall balancing of all the album’s tracks together into a singular cohesive set.

Audio Mastering at Luv-Hertz is £60 per hour and if you want a FREE quote simply get in touch below and send us a link to the audio you want mastered and let us know the type of release you have in mind such as Digital masters for release to streaming sites, CD masters, Vinyl pre-masters, Cassette tapes, all of these or any combinations of these.