07/20/2025
Many new clients who are releasing music have asked "What is Mastering anyway, even though we know we need it?
So..., I wanted to share a brief-ish, non-techy overview of audio mastering and I hope it helps in some way.
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Why?
Why do we 'Master' musical releases today and what does that mean?
Mastering is both the final creative step in the music production process, and also the first technical step in the music manufacturing process. It is meant to elevate an audio file to it's ultimate sonic potential while still making it duplicatable.
What is a Master?
Traditionally, the purpose of mastering is to create a superior 'Master' recording that will be duplicated in mass production such as on Vinyl, Compact Disc or Audio Cassette.
Mastering for digital release also includes authoring work such as text and data entry for names, titles, subcode, file naming & handling etc., and this work can often surpass the time spent on preparing the audio in a full album project.
Mastering a full album is far more complex than mastering a single release because album mastering must address the issue of continuity across all of the cuts on the release.
A qualified, mature mastering engineer can create a very close match between songs that may have been recorded at different times, and under different circumstances. There are limits to this work of course but that is the essence of it.
How?
There exists a happy convergence of bandwidth, dynamic range and overall loudness that suits most genres of music, and a qualified mastering engineer knows where that is and how to package your audio to these goalposts. I liken it to Finishing carpentry vs Framing.
Who Does it?
Now the hard part is telling you that mastering your own music is about as sensible as a surgeon operating on their own child. Would you do it if you could? Not if you had to, but just because you could? What if the correct decision as a surgeon is something you wouldn't want as a parent but you're already inside the body?
You simply cannot maintain adequate objectivity to make correct mastering decisions on your own work because you are emotionally invested in it, heavily, and that is what gets in the way of the objectivity required to do the job.
Benefits:
My background in analog mastering preceded digital processing & streaming when, during the 80's and 90's I was the house mastering engineer and QC head for a major music manufacturing plant in Western Canada.
This gave me the opportunity to prepare several thousand masters for replication the Old School way, the 'Right' way when we knew how to hear audio, not just look at it.
My first several years of mastering did not include digital processing or storage of any kind, and was entirely analog & magnetic tape based.
Every production will benefit from having a qualified mastering engineer on their team to ensure the best possible sound and to meet all of the required standards for today's music releases.
Bud Bremner
Coastal Mastering Studios
Edmonton AB 🇨🇦
www.coastalmastering.ca
[email protected]
