If the song is going to be mastered, leave that stuff off and give the mix some headroom. Our tendency is to want to make everything as loud as possible, which we try to do with a limiter or compressors. A mastering engineer can’t bring back transients that were squared off from clipping. Watch – 6 Pre-Mastering Tips with Michael Romanowskiġ. Song Mastering: Prep Your Tracks! A mastering engineer at work.

If you’re going to leave song mastering to someone else, there are many ways you can give your mastering engineer the best possible mixes. What a mastering engineer does differently than a mixer is make final, sometimes very subtle, tweaks to make something sound polished and “commercial.” You can learn how to master a song or album yourself, but there’s a reason we trust dedicated engineers! Mastering is an audio discipline on its own, so those who specialize in it have incredible ears, the proper equipment, and highly treated rooms. Song mastering is the final step in getting your tracks ready to release.