Can You Master Your Own Music?
Can You Master Your Own Music?, Should you master your own music? We're going to look at can. And address the should you aspect as well.
I no longer believe that a dedicated, specific built mastering space is essential in 2021. There are so many amazing tools now that allow us to fully understand what is going on with our audio, beyond the old "use your ears" add-age. With a competent music production set up.
Some basic acoustic treatments and a deep through understanding of your tools, You totally can master your own music.
As noted in the video above. The caveats to this in my experience are 3 fold.
First off you need to be willing to and have ability to listen to your mix on various types of equipment. With at least a good baseline and understanding of how each one should sound. When used correctly this can give you a perspective on your mix, That can lead to changes you simply wouldn’t make in your usual listening spot.
It is compromise in its greatest form. Being truthful that the person who consumes your music in the end, Well they might play it on a cheap bluetooth speaker or worse. EarPods.
So it needs to sound right across these sources.
Secondly is to not be super precious about YOUR work. This is one of the hardest parts for many. You slaved over that mix. An your confident you did a great job.
But when you reference it on different sources and you listen to a great mix by comparison.
Well you have to swallow that pride an say.
I got that so wrong.
Being objective about your own mix result can be hard, especially when you compare it to a track thats god like.
I personally use
Still Dre - Dr Dre
Plasticworld - Pendulum
That’s it. Just those two. If i can get my mix to have 80% of the space, and balance of those two then im well on the way.
An last but not least.
You need to have the technical knowledge to fix the things you hear. I showed a few ninja tactics in the video above that i used on that master. Using Ozone 9 and IRON. Just those two tools were enough for that. Ozone 9 can in fact be enough all round.
If you would like to know more about how I use Ozone 9 there’s a whole course here.