Mastering your own destiny

The art of mastering has been transformed by the advent of sophisticated software, giving musicians more control than ever over how their mixes sound to the outside world. But, as Dan Goldstein explains, a knowledge of basic principles is essential i

In the good (bad?) old days, mastering was a process few musicians got intimately involved with. After basic track laying and overdubbing in a commercial studio, a multi-track tape would be mixed down to produce a ‘master mix’ of a song. This would be recorded in stereo on a two-track mastering machine – a quarterinch analogue reel-to-reel recorder or, more commonly in the last 10–15 years, a digital recorder such as a DAT machine. Subsequent songs would then be mixed down and added to the two-track master until the session (an album, for argument’s sake) was complete.

This feature first appeared in Music Tech Magazine issue 07
Filed under General Features

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