There is a little known secret amongst the big-wigs in the music business... Mastering. You've probably heard the term. Typically, you'll hear an artist talking about "sending their mix off to be mastered." When the mix returns from the gods in Nashville or LA or where-ever, it magically sounds brighter, clearer and louder than before. This process is not cheap either. I've seen semi-pro albums costing $10,000+ to be professionally mastered. I currently have a friend that is spending $250 per song to have his tracks mastered at a local studio. You DO NOT have to pay all this money to have YOUR tracks mastered. You can do it yourself for a fraction of the cost!

Let me walk you through a typical recording session for a song. First, you record you your performance. Next you mix the individual tracks down to a single file. Lastly, you run the file through a "mastering" program such as Ozone or T-Racks. Out pops a beautifully mastered work of art. The great thing about these mastering software suites is that you can take almost ANY recording and make it sound REALLY GREAT. These programs also have tons of presets that you can use to get started. Once you get a feel for it, you can tailor them to your own needs. It really is this simple to master a song - or is it?

Here's a hard part of mastering: having great sonic space to listen in with. A fully-tuned mastering room is the best way to go, but few people can afford to pay an engineer with such a room. If you are mastering yourself, you need to attempt to avoid any major reflective surfaces like bare walls, the large flat surface on your desk, etc. Clutter can actually help in this instance. A clean flat surface will reflect sound more uniformly and keep it bouncing around the room longer - a cluttered surface will break-up the sound waves and they will dissapate faster.

Use the best quality speakers possibly can. Clarity and flat frequency response is the key during the mastering process. You need a set of speakers that can let you hear every single detail in each song. I've done a mastering session at a friend's studio because he had superior speakers and a good sounding room. You need every edge you can get.

>Listen to your master on a variety of speakers. Go find small boom-boxes - your car stereo - a home theater system - as much variety as you can find. Listen to your mastered songs all the way through on each different set of speakers. You will hear a totally different perspective on different speakers. The little might allow you to hear the out of tune background vocal or a guitar part that is too loud. A large home theater system will aid in hearing muddy bass lines or an overly loud kick drum.

To find out more about the two mastering products I've mentioned please click below.

iZotope Ozone 3

IK Multimedia T-Racks 24

Bottom Line: A freshly mixed song will benefit from the compression, equalization and limiting that is a part of the mastering process. Be sure to listen to a variety of different speakers to hear all the different aspects of you mix. Pretty much ANY album you buy in a store has been mastered. So, don't overlook this critical part of album creation.