Mastering is the final creative stage in record production. It ensures not only that your music is properly prepared for your distribution plan. But it also ensures your music sounds it's best, aiming for maximum clarity and high impact. Music production is becoming more and more accessible and automated mastering services are becoming popular. So the question is, should musicians still consider investing in a professional mastering engineer? Here are the reasons we think you should.

Human Touch

You’ve put a lot of love and a lot of hard work into producing your music. So using an automated mastering service couldn't possibly give that same love. Sure, it can get it to the right level for release and roughly balance the frequency spectrum, which is an incredible feet for technology. However, there’s one thing it lacks… emotion! A professional mastering engineer will make decisions based on the feeling of the music. Mastering your acoustic ballad through the same preset as a club anthem probably isn't the best approach for your art.

Expertise

Not only do professional mastering engineers have the highly trained hearing and expertise to deliver an incredible mastered version of your track. But they will also quickly pick up on any problems in your mix or production. Most will provide a free mix critique to make sure you’re ready for mastering. Which brings us on to our next point…

Ear Fatigue

Thinking that mastering yourself might be the best option? Be careful. By now you’ve probably spent so many hours listening to your track that it becomes hard to make accurate decisions. Therefore you might be finding yourself going round in circles. People often underestimate the power of another set of ears. An external mastering engineer with fresh ears and an unbiased mind will help you to make better decisions on the sound of your music. Giving you peace of mind.

The Studio

Mastering studios focus on absolute monitoring transparency and balance. Importantly, the rooms are treat acoustically to provide as flat of a response as possible. Secondly, the speakers provide an unbelievable level of detail that cannot be achieved in most studio environments. Therefore, this can uncover imbalances that even the greatest mix engineer may not have known about.