You just finished a track and want to share it with the world. The final step is Mastering before uploading to digital distribution! (iTunes, Spotify, Beatport, etc). When sending your tracks to a mastering engineer, there are a few important things to understand to ensure your song is at its highest quality.
Although there are many methods in the world of mixing and mastering, following these pre-mastering tips will prepare your songs to achieve better results.
If you just need quick advice on exporting individual tracks in Ableton Live to send for mastering, watch the video below...for more in-depth advice on mixing your tracks, keep reading.
Mastering Won’t Fix A Bad Mix
Some people assume if their song doesn’t sound good before sending it to the mastering engineer, he will fix all their mistakes and make it better. NOT true. The better your song sounds before sending it to the mastering engineer, the higher quality the end result will be. (Assuming the engineer knows what he’s doing). Having the right acoustic room treatment, plugins/ tools, and years experience of mixing are essential before mastering.
Mastering plugin presets on the Master Track only goes so far. Every song has different needs and should be treated intentionally, if you want a true professional sound!
Today, AI Mastering services are becoming more advanced with their song mastering algorithms. Although in my experience this doesn't always get a "perfect" result, depending on how well your song is already mixed, AI Mastering services like LANDR.com