Mixing and mastering are both very important components of the audio recording and production process. In a nutshell, mixing is the process of combining the different audio tracks together. Whereas, Mastering entails polishing the mixed audio and putting it into compatible formats for the various platforms such as vinyl, broadcast and more. Let’s take a look at some of the most important steps in both of these processes.
Mixing
- Labeling tracks.
- Organising tracks into similar groups.
- Normalising tracks at similar volume levels.
- Equalising.
- Getting rid of unwanted frequencies with high and low pass filters.
- Adding Effects.
Mastering
- Slight adjustments are made to the EQ, compression, limiting, and stereo enhancement .
- If the project is a music album, all of the songs are brought to similar levels to create one cohesive product.
- Spacing and fades are added to the beginning and endings of songs.
- Tracks/Songs are labeled and put in the desired order.
- Tracks/Songs are encoded with IRSC.
What is IRSC
IRSC stands for The International Standard Recording Code. This is a standard that every musician, record producer or any sound recording copyright owner must follow in order to have their works tracked and to get paid with royalties.
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