1. Mastering Audio 1

2. What is Mastering?
“Making the master” - the definitive version from which all other copies will be made.
The last step before duplication and distribution 2

3. End Goals of Mastering
Creating a cohesive unit out of many tracks (album mastering)
Order of tracks
Spacing and transition between tracks
Consistent loudness across tracks
Consistent sonics between tracks
Sonic Maximization
Making it as sound as loud and as good as possible for the given delivery medium
Meeting delivery specifications 3

4. Reasons to NOT master your own material
Fresh set of experienced ears
Mastering engineer knows his monitors and environment
Mastering rooms are calibrated
Mastering engineer is familiar with other material from same genre
Mastering engineer offers an unbiased perspective
You should never master in the same room where the project was mixed 4

5. Tools of the trade Equalizers Compressors Brickwall Limiters Dither
Multiband compressors
M/S processors
MONITORING SYSTEM
ROOM 5

6. Loudness LKFS/LUFS – an RMS measurement over set periods of time
Momentary – instantaneous – simliar to VU meter
short-term – longer period of time than momentary
Integral – long term – over the course of an entire song, album, or program
In the future, most platforms will find this level and force the program to match a set level to make loudness consistent from one song to the next
LRA – Loudness Range measured in LU (equivalent of dB
Distance from softest to loudest LKFS, with top 5% and lowest 10% excluded

7. Metering
At the very least, you will need meters capable of showing LKFS and LRA readings.
True Peak readings (to avoid inter-sample peaks) would also be advisable

8. Brickwall Limiters
Set ceiling for maximum peak level, bring threshold down to boost level
Very useful tools, but easily abused
Can only exist in the digital realm
If including dither, should be very last thing in the chain 8

9. Know your medium
Mastering for one medium does not necessarily work for others; know the end goals and delivery requirements for each format CD
High-Resolution
Lossy compression
Streaming
Itunes
YouTube
HD Television
Soundcloud 9

10. Mastering for CD Peak at -1.0 dBFS Track indexes ISRC codes
Table of contents
CD Text – titles, etc.
Unicode or ASCII?
DDP files 10

11. Mastering for Lossy Algorithms
Don't deal with highs very well
Don't deal with hyper-compression very well
Feed highest quality possible for conversion
Use VBR encoding when possible
Higher kbps = less compression = better sound 11

12. Broadcast/HDTV Loudness measurements:
ATSC A/85 and EBU R128
ITU BS.1770
RMS can be used, but one must make sure it is correctly calibrated (sine wave at full- scale)
Dolby AC3 and Dialnorm
It’s the law! 12

13. Dither Used when going from higher bit-depth to lower one
Flat or noise-shaped
POW-r consortium
Make sure it's only applied once
Check your DAW's settings! 13

14. Equalization A little bit goes a long way Different types of EQ
Small boosts or cuts in more places rather than large changes at a few frequencies
Different types of EQ
Analog or digital
Passive vs. active designs
Phase-linear designs
Can only be digital 14

15. Compression Attack and Release settings are key
Small ratios with lower thresholds
Aiming for only a few dB of reduction 15

16. Prepping for mastering
Bring Highest Res you can
Don't over-compress or EQ your mix
Leave headroom
Have alternate mixes available
Vocals up or down; bass up or down; etc.
Stems are good too 16