As I've said before, mastering is simple.
At it's heart, it's just about levels, EQ and dynamics.
Measuring loudness is simple, so must all be about EQ and dynamics, right ?
Well, not quite.
Because EQ affects our perception of level.
Change the EQ, and you change the way we hear it's loudness - the way we perceive the level. So once you change the EQ, you may need to tweak the level - and vice versa. I wrote about this idea in more detail here.
This creates a challenge - but also offers an exciting opportunity.
The challenge is to get the balance of EQ and level just right - and the opportunity is to make your music sound louder, but using less compression and limiting to get there.
Which has to be a good thing, right ?
The video above demonstrates this on a real-life example, but there isn't enough time to go into all the EQ decisions.
And because some of the most common questions I get asked on the Home Mastering Masterclass course are along the lines of "how do you know what EQ to use", I created the Home Mastering EQ video pack.
So if you'd like to really dig deep into the topic of using EQ in mastering, you might like to take a look - for more information, click here.
The music in this video is by Por H O Por V.
