What is your step-by-step method of mastering recorded music?

Answer 1

I usually don’t spend too much time on the master because i believe the song really gets its shine from how the mix is, not necessarily some master chain to make everything loud and punchy. Usually i’ll only have a limiter and maybe a little bit of exciter for some added character and some stereo imaging in certain frequencies to make everything sound like it’s filling up a space.

Answer 2

My first step always is to mix the different tracks until it sounds exactly how I want it to. You have to make sure you cut the lows of melodies to let the bass poke through in the mix, if you forget to do this the whole track can be ruined because the bass will muddy up the melody and you get an overall gross sound out. I usually add a limiter to the master track and set the limit to -0.2db to make sure no sound is overpowering the track. Next I balance the different bands (i.e. low band gain, medium band gain, and high band gain.) And overall try to get the track as loud as possible without making anything sound muddy.