Skip to main content
MusicRadar MusicRadar The No.1 website for musicians
Sign in
  • View Profile
  • Sign out
  • Artist news
  • Recording Week 25
  • Music Gear Reviews
  • Synths
  • Guitars
  • Controllers
  • Drums
  • Keyboards & Pianos
  • Guitar Amps
  • Software & Apps
  • More
    • Recording
    • DJ Gear
    • Acoustic Guitars
    • Bass Guitars
    • Tech
    • Tutorials
    • Reviews
    • Buying Guides
    • About Us
More
  • As It Was preset
  • Don't Give Up
  • Ron Wood's drum secret
  • 95k+ free music samples
Don't miss these
Shure MV7+
Microphones Best USB microphones 2025: Plug-and-play mics for everything from streaming to singing
Man plays Alesis Nitro Max drum kit with black sticks
Electronic Drums Best beginner electronic drum sets 2025: top-rated entry-level e-drums, reviewed by experts
The t.bone RB 500 ribbon microphone in front of a guitar amp
Microphones Best cheap microphones for recording 2025: Budget microphones for the home studio
A Boss RC-10R looper pedal on a wooden floor
Guitar Pedals Best looper pedals 2025: My favourite loop stations for every budget
Drummer sat at an e-kit places a pair of headphones over his head
Drummers Best headphones for drummers 2025: sound isolation for the studio, rehearsal room and stage
Kids hands on a beginner keyboard
Keyboards & Pianos Best keyboards for beginners 2025: Get started with our expert pick of beginner keyboards for all ages
Audient Oria Mini
Recording Audient’s ORIA Mini is the set-and-forget hardware that will fix your studio’s acoustic imperfections so that you can create better mixes
Earplugs being tested at a loud band rehearsal
Tech Best earplugs for musicians 2025: protect your hearing with these essential audio attenuators, for the practice room to your next gig
An Apogee audio interface on a desk
Audio Interfaces 9 mistakes producers make when using an audio interface - and how to avoid them
Recording Week 25
Tutorials 25 recording tips and tricks everyone should know
Compressor settings
Tutorials Produce better music with our ultimate compression cheat sheet
Drum recording
Music Production Tutorials 10 tips for recording perfect drums
Bass
Music Production Tutorials 37 heavyweight bass production tips
View from behind a drum kit on stage
Drummers 11 live mistakes every drummer makes
Logic Drums
Music Production Tutorials How to think like a human drummer when building software beats
  1. Tech
  2. Software & Apps

9 pro mastering tips for beginners

Tuition
By Computer Music ( Computer Music ) published 27 September 2017

Things to remember when you're starting out

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works.

1. Try an exciter/ enhancer

1. Try an exciter/ enhancer

MASTERING WEEK: If your top-end still isn’t right despite your best EQ efforts, you might want to try an exciter or enhancer. Whereas EQs can accentuate noise, and only amplify what’s already there. Exciters raise the harmonics of the fundamental tones found in the recording, brightening dull mixes. As with everything in mastering, though, don’t overdo it!

Page 1 of 9
Page 1 of 9
2. Narrow the mix

2. Narrow the mix

Adjusting the width of a stereo recording usually means making it wider, but an overly wide mix can be narrowed, too. There are plug-ins that can do this, but they need to be handled with care, as they can cause phasing issues and weaken a tough mix. Be sure to leave everything below 100Hz alone, as this area carries no directional information and has a much greater impact in mono than stereo.

Page 2 of 9
Page 2 of 9
3. Noise reduction

3. Noise reduction

You might want to apply noise reduction at times, especially during long fade-ins or -outs. This can be necessary because of bad recording or a number of other factors. Inevitably, though, unless you have very high-end equipment, noise reduction will affect the harmonic content of the music to some extent, so there’ll need to be some measure of compromise.

Page 3 of 9
Page 3 of 9
4. Expand the dynamic range

4. Expand the dynamic range

Expansion can be useful for pulling some dynamics out of a squashed mix. Expanders work in almost the exact opposite way to compressors, increasing dynamic range rather than compressing it. They can’t perform miracles, though, and can in fact add distortion, so if you have to rely on one, perhaps you should think about having another go at the mix.

Page 4 of 9
Page 4 of 9
5. Don't go through the ceiling

5. Don't go through the ceiling

Keep your limiter’s output (sometimes called the ‘ceiling’) under 0dB. Although you might want your track to be as loud as possible, some CD players can glitch if too many samples hit 0dB, and some disc duplication plants may reject the disc because their equipment determines the 0dB samples to be ‘errors’. Set your limiter to -0.5dB or thereabouts.

Page 5 of 9
Page 5 of 9
6. Lookahead limiting

6. Lookahead limiting

Some plugin limiters offer a lookahead function. This can cut the beginning of your track off completely if your left locator (export start point) is set too close to a zero-crossing. So, if you use lookahead, leave a second or two lead-in and -out for the bounce, then tighten up the start and end of the final, mastered audio file.

Page 6 of 9
Page 6 of 9
7. Put songs on separate tracks

7. Put songs on separate tracks

When mastering an EP or album, import all the songs onto separate audio tracks, so that each one can have its own EQ applied and the whole lot can be balanced accordingly. Route all of them to the same bus, then compress and limit them together for consistency.

Page 7 of 9
Page 7 of 9
8. Try mastering reverb

8. Try mastering reverb

Very rarely, you might want to use a mastering reverb to ‘glue’ a mix together. Convolution is your best option here, but avoid plate/spring emulations and be gentle with the wet signal - no more than 10-15% - and roll off all the wet signal below 100Hz, too.

Page 8 of 9
Page 8 of 9
9. Don't overdo it

9. Don't overdo it

Last but not least - and at the necessary risk of repeating ourselves - don’t overdo anything! Big EQ boosts, high compression ratios and/or super-low thresholds can ruin a track. You can still be creative while being subtle. Be sure to keep an eye on your spectral analyser plug-in, ensure that the master channel never clips and learn to trust your ears. This is the final process in the production of your tune, so it really is now or never!

Page 9 of 9
Page 9 of 9
Computer Music
Computer Music
Social Links Navigation

Computer Music magazine is the world’s best selling publication dedicated solely to making great music with your Mac or PC computer. Each issue it brings its lucky readers the best in cutting-edge tutorials, need-to-know, expert software reviews and even all the tools you actually need to make great music today, courtesy of our legendary CM Plugin Suite.

Read more
An Apogee audio interface on a desk
9 mistakes producers make when using an audio interface - and how to avoid them
 
 
Recording Week 25
25 recording tips and tricks everyone should know
 
 
Compressor settings
Produce better music with our ultimate compression cheat sheet
 
 
Drum recording
10 tips for recording perfect drums
 
 
Bass
37 heavyweight bass production tips
 
 
View from behind a drum kit on stage
11 live mistakes every drummer makes
 
 
Latest in Software & Apps
Creating chord progressions in Ableton Live
Creating chords for electronic music: 3 ways to generate more interesting progressions in Ableton Live 12
 
 
CHERRY AUDIO
Cherry Audio's Trident Mk III continues the legacy of an underrated Korg classic
 
 
A laptop with the Avalon channel strip plugin running on it
With plugins starting from just $24 the Universal Audio Rocktober deal is the best place to power up your productions ahead of Prime Day
 
 
evoke
Minimal Audio promises to "go beyond the vocoder" with "hypermodern" vocal resynthesis plugin Evoke
 
 
IK Multimedia Tonex Signature Bass Collections
“The ultimate library of bass tones”: IK Multimedia’s Tonex modelling suite and pedals arrive for bass guitar
 
 
Compressor settings
Produce better music with our ultimate compression cheat sheet
 
 
Latest in Tuition
Spotify Wrapped 2025 header
How To: Make the most of Spotify Wrapped
 
 
Bass
37 heavyweight bass production tips
 
 
Recording Week 25
25 recording tips and tricks everyone should know
 
 
Sontronics Microphone
Ever wondered how a microphone really works?
 
 
Two laptops for music production with an audio interface and MIDI controller
How to stress test a laptop for music production in any DAW - and why every producer should do it
 
 
MusicRadar logo
Never miss a MusicRadar thing: Google has made it easier to keep us in your feed
 
 

MusicRadar is part of Future plc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. Visit our corporate site.

  • About Us
  • Contact Future's experts
  • Terms and conditions
  • Privacy policy
  • Cookies policy
  • Advertise with us
  • Accessibility Statement
  • Careers

© Future Publishing Limited Quay House, The Ambury, Bath BA1 1UA. All rights reserved. England and Wales company registration number 2008885.

Please login or signup to comment

Please wait...