From a historical point of view, the name is ' pre-mastering', and "mastering" used to be referred to the creation of the replication medium {the master} needed at manufacturing plants. These days pre-mastering is synonymous of mastering which from a technical point of view, is also the process of optimizing all individual frequency levels to meet the industry standards. For the most part this process is source dependent, so the better your mix, the better the results to be obtained. Because of this, results vary from recording to recording, making it a crucial step for best system translation .
The mastering engineer {'ME'} should be able to make a great mix louder, punchier and clearer better than anyone else and without significant sonic sacrifices. Next to experience he has all the tools needed, e.g., the gear and the acoustic environment. But, he is certainly not the deciding factor to achieve great recordings. Since many mixes don't come out, in terms of tonal balance, 'perfect' all the time, mastering still takes a crucial role to improve upon your record's presentation by means of harmonic balancing.
While many engineers regard their mastering service as a process to add more 'color' and 'vibe', that's not Music Mastering Online's philosophy, our goal is to keep a transparent mastering chain and enhance only if you ask. The job may also include disc assembly and quality control for manufacturing purposes. To read more
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