[quote]What Is Mastering ?[/quote]
Mastering is the final stage your music goes through after your song has been mixed.
It can be looked at as the shine or the icing on the cake.
Its the last chance to enhance the sound and fix any audible problems.
It can add warmth and improve the definition, clarity and stereo image.
It can be matching a group of songs together into an album so they all have a consistent sound and flow well with each other.
Removal of unwanted noises, clicks, pops & hiss.
Getting the song to sound good across different audio systems and speaker set-ups.
You can dramatically change the sound of a song or make minor enhancements depending on what is needed.
[quote]What Isn’t Mastering ?[/quote]
Mastering isn’t a magic formula that will suddenly make a bad mix sound good.
If there are problem’s in the mix or if instruments are to loud or to quiet this need’s to be fixed at the mixing stage where you have more detailed control.
[quote]Most great masters start with great mixes.[/quote]