Once the mix engineer and/or the artist is happy, the final mix will be rendered to a stereo audio file. Remember, mastering doesn’t begin until the mix engineer has done their job by mixing all the tracks into a cohesive whole, likely using equalisation and compression, as well as other effects, and perhaps applying multi-band compression and limiting on the final master output. You can achieve similarly superlative results using a few well-chosen plug-ins, a dependable pair of monitors or reliable headphones, and Studio One’s Project page. Relax – we don’t expect you to own that kind of kit and, frankly, it’s not entirely necessary either. Mastering engineers typically have extremely expensive outboard processors and high-end monitoring equipment as part of their purpose-built studios.

The procedure sees high-quality equalisation and compression used to even out the source material and make it sound as pleasing as possible to the ear. This can be a stereo tape or a digital file. Put simply, mastering is the process of sweetening a finished two-track mix.

Tracks mastering plugin