The Short Answer
Mixing Works On The Individual Tracks Of A Song (Vocals, Drums, 808, Melodies) And Balances Them Into One Stereo File. Mastering Works On That Finished Stereo File And Gets It Ready For Release: Loudness, Tone, Consistency And The Final Delivery Files.
Mixing Decides How The Record Sounds. Mastering Makes Sure It Sounds That Way Everywhere.
What Happens In A Mix
- Balancing Every Track's Level So The Song Reads Clearly
- EQ So The Vocal, The 808 And The Melodies Each Have Their Own Space
- Compression So The Vocal Stays Present And The Drums Hit
- Reverb, Delay And Effects For Depth And Character
- Automation: Rides And Moves That Follow The Song Section By Section
- Placing Adlibs, Doubles And Harmonies Around The Lead
What Happens In A Master
- Final EQ And Tone So It Translates On Earbuds, Cars And Club Systems
- Loudness: Bringing The Record Up To A Competitive Level Without Crushing It
- Controlling Peaks So It Doesn't Distort Once Streaming Services Encode It
- Making Every Song On A Project Feel Like It Belongs Together
- Delivery Files: Main, Clean And Instrumental Versions With A Loudness Sheet
Which One Do You Need?
If You Have A Session With Separate Tracks, You Need A Mix, And Almost Always A Master After It. If You Already Have A Finished Mix You're Happy With (From Your Own Engineer Or The Producer), You Just Need Mastering.
If You're Not Sure, Send What You Have When You Request A Quote And I'll Tell You Honestly Which One Will Make The Bigger Difference.
Can One Engineer Do Both?
Yes, And For Most Independent Releases It's The Smart Move. The Person Who Mixed The Record Already Knows Exactly What It Needs At The Master Stage, And You Deal With One Person, One Timeline And One Invoice. That's What The Mix & Master Service Is.
How Loud Should A Master Be?
Spotify, Apple Music And YouTube Play Everything Back At Roughly The Same Volume, Around -14 LUFS. A Master That's Louder Than That Is Simply Turned Down, So Crushing A Record To Win A Loudness War Doesn't Win Anything On Streaming.
That Said, Rap And R&B Masters Are Usually Louder Than -14, Because Density And Punch Are Part Of The Sound. The Goal Is A Master That's Loud Because It's Full And Controlled, Not Because It's Squashed. Every Delivery Package I Send Includes A Loudness Sheet With The Measured Loudness And True Peak Of Each Version.
What To Send For Each
- For Mixing: Every Track As Its Own WAV, All Starting At The Same Point, Plus A Rough Bounce And References
- For Mastering: One Stereo WAV Of The Final Mix At 24-Bit Or Higher, With No Limiter On The Master Bus
- For Both: The Release Date, And The Versions You Need (Clean, Instrumental, Acapella)