Before release
Mastering is the last step, and loudness targets differ between streaming, broadcast and video.
Read more about YoutubeWhat Is Mastering in Music?
The final stage: making a finished mix loud enough, tonally consistent, and translatable across phone speakers, headphones and a club system. Mastering polishes; it cannot fix a bad mix.
In short
Mastering is the final stage of music production: taking a finished mix and preparing it for release so it is loud enough, tonally consistent with other records, and translates across phone speakers, headphones and club systems.
- Works on
- The finished stereo mix
- Typical target
- ≈ −14 LUFS integrated for streaming
- Main tools
- EQ · compression · limiting
- Cannot fix
- Balance problems inside the mix
Mixing and mastering are separate jobs and it is worth being precise about the difference. Mixing works on the individual parts of a song — the balance between the kick and the bass, where the vocal sits, how much reverb the snare gets. Mastering works on the finished stereo file as a single object. A mastering engineer cannot turn the vocal up; by then it is baked in. What they can do is make the whole thing louder, tonally even, and consistent with the rest of an album.
Three things happen in almost every master. Tonal balance: gentle broad EQ so the record does not sound noticeably darker or brighter than what a listener heard before it. Dynamics: compression and limiting to raise the average level without destroying the transients that make it feel alive. And delivery: hitting the loudness targets that streaming platforms normalise to, so the track neither gets turned down nor sounds weak next to its neighbours.
The loudness question is the one most people get wrong. Streaming services normalise playback, so mastering a track far louder than the platform target gains nothing — the service simply turns it down, and you are left with the squashed dynamics you paid for. Around −14 LUFS integrated is the common reference point for streaming, though the honest answer is that the genre matters more than the number.
The rule that has not changed: mastering polishes, it does not rescue. If a mix has a boxy low-midrange or a vocal fighting a guitar, mastering can only make that problem louder. Fix it in the mix.
Music and AI terms related to mastering
Where mastering decides something
Three places mastering decides something.
In the browser
Normalising to a target peak is the part of mastering you can do without a studio.
Read more about Volume changer
In AI output
Generated tracks usually arrive already loud, which leaves less headroom than a raw mix would.
Read more about AI song generatorExplore
More music and AI terms explained
The terms that carry enough confusion to need a full page.
Mastering — questions people ask
What is mastering?
The final stage before release: preparing a finished mix so it translates across systems, sits at an appropriate loudness, and holds together alongside other records.
What loudness should I master to?
Streaming platforms normalise towards roughly −14 LUFS, so mastering much louder gains nothing audible and costs dynamic range. Broadcast and video have their own targets.
Can mastering fix a bad mix?
No. Mastering makes small corrective moves across a whole stereo file; it cannot separate elements that are fighting each other. Problems belong in the mix.
Do I need to master AI-generated music?
Often not, because generated tracks usually arrive already loud. That also means less headroom than a raw mix, so be careful adding another limiter on top.
What is LUFS?
A loudness measurement that reflects how loud something actually sounds, rather than its peak level. It is the unit streaming platforms use to normalise playback.
What is the difference between limiting and compression?
Both reduce dynamic range; a limiter is simply a compressor with a very high ratio, used to stop peaks exceeding a ceiling rather than to shape a sound.
Put the vocabulary to work
Describe the track you want and hear it in under a minute.