How To Master Your Music

How To Master Your Own Music

Are you wanting to learn how to Master your music?

My name is Andrew Aurora and I help Artists, Producers, and Mixers bring their creative vision to life through Mixing and Mastering

And today I am going to talk to you about How To Master Your Music, whether or not you should, and Master a song from start to finish in video linked below.

But first, let's answer some common questions about Mastering

Let's jump right in

How To Master Your Music


What Is Mastering?

Mastering is a unique skill for bringing the most out of your mix and preparing it for playback on all platforms at a competitive quality and volume

Think of Mastering as being the final icing on the cake, except unlike icing, mastering is necessary and makes the music better, not worse (I hate icing most of the time, that's why I say that)

Some people like to Master their music themselves and some people like to send their mix off to a specialist for Mastering

Mastering engineers typically have high-quality mastering equipment and high-quality rooms to ensure they get the best representation of the sound as possible

Many of these engineers have literally spent YEARS honing their craft to become "Masters", so to speak, at bringing your music to a professional quality

Should You Master Your own music?

There are typically two schools of thought here:

 • The first one is that having a fresh set of ears on a project will be better because they haven't heard the song 10's or even hundreds of times and will be able to hear things that the producer and the mixer may not hear

 • The second school of thought is that the more ears you have on a project, the more likely the intended vision for the song could get compromised.

However, I don't think you have to worry about the 2nd one so much when you are working with great mixing or mastering engineers, because the odds that they will put out something that's less than ideal is unlikely

Another thing to consider here is your budget.

Do you have enough money to pay a great Mastering engineer?

Do you feel like you can do just fine without one?

Would you rather do everything yourself?

Me personally, I have always mastered my own stuff and have never outsourced it, and I don't have some fancy studio or super nice gear.

I have mixed and mastered everything I've ever done in some of the worst environments possible such as a walk in closets, the corner of a garage, or a standard bedroom with no treatment, and I've done it all in the box

Despite all that, every client I have had has been very happy and left me great reviews (Examples Below)

I'm not gonna claim to be the biggest expert on mastering, and I won't take anything away from people who have dedicated their life to the craft, but I think it's important to remember that there is ultimately only one thing that matters above all else: Does it sound good?

No matter what environment your in or equipment you have, you can make great sounding records, and your most valuable tool is your ears

Most people aren't working in fancy studios. In fact most people are in their bedroom with a laptop and headphones.

If you can learn to make great sounding music in that environment then you will be able to make great music anywhere

Ultimately, should you master your own music? I think if you know what your doing and you are confident you can do a good job, then there is nothing wrong with it.

I also think if you have the money to hire someone who specializes and don't mind letting someone else do that part of the process, it's a good idea

If you decide to Master your music Yourself

If you do decide to master your music yourself and don't have a lot of money I recommend investing in some high quality Mastering software such as Ozone or Fabfilter plugins

These will run you a few hundred dollars depending on what you get, but it will be worth it.

Though I think a great engineer can make things sound good regardless of nice gear or plugins, I also think that most stock plugins just don't provide you the tools you need to get the highest quality of masters

Because of that I believe that mastering software or gear is one area where it is worth investing a little money

A lot of people think you need analog gear for mastering.

Though Analog gear is nice to have, there is no reason you can't get a great sound from in the box, and some of the best engineers today do everything in the box, including mastering, so don't let that discourage you.

There is also a lot of advantages to mastering in the box such as the ability to get louder masters and do easier recalls.

I think anyone who frowns on in-the-box really just needs to get their priorities straight and quit being so elitest and realize it's not about the fancy gear, it's about the engineer

That said, if you want to Master your own music and you don't have a lot of money or a nice studio, I think it's very possible to produce high quality Masters with practice

With all that said, to watch me master a song from start to finish check out the video at the top of this post.

Happy Mixing and Mastering!

I hope you enjoyed this post about How To Master Your Music

BEFORE YOU GO, I wanted to mention my 'Essentials To Become A BEAST At Mixing & Mastering.'

I created this free resource to help new mixers have a clear guide on what they need to focus on to be on the fast track to Mixing & Mastering great records.

When starting out with mixing, it can be really daunting trying to figure out what to focus on and where to put your energy.

I wanted to provide a clear guide AND some of my favorite resources (such as my favorite books and other mixing resources) to help you build a strong foundation to build off of on your Mixing & Mastering journey

To pick this free resource up, click the button below

Andrew Aurora
Andrew Aurora

I hope you enjoyed this post. I share new content weekly here on my blog on how to bring your creative vision to life so you can start creating amazing music. Please share any content ideas you would like for me to create for you!

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