A quick guide to mastering your own musicAd feature with Mastering The Mix
What is Mastering?
Mastering is the final stage of polish for your music. While mixing is about balancing multiple parts, mastering focuses on refining the stereo file so that it translates across different systems and sounds competitive with other professional tracks. It can’t fix a broken mix, but it can add that final shine; correcting the tonal balance if it’s too dark or bright, crafting consistent and punchy dynamics, and setting the loudness for streaming and other formats. It can also be the last chance to check for clicks, overly hot peaks and mono-compatibility.
If you can afford it, it’s probably worth hiring a pro to master your bigger releases, as a fresh pair of ears and a treated room are worth their weight in gold. However, with a little practice you can still achieve high-quality results by mastering your own tracks. It’s also a great way to learn how to build better mixes.
We’re taking a look at some common mastering issues and how to fix them using a suite of Mastering The Mix plugins. The goal is to take some of the mystery out of the mastering workflow so that you can build a repeatable system that you can trust.
Note that all audio examples are volume matched so that you can more accurately hear the difference in processing without being fooled by volume differences. As such, some of the changes will sound fairly subtle, so we recommend listening on a full-range playback system or headphones.

How to prepare for mastering
There are a few things you need to do to prep your track for mastering. These include:

Leaving some headroom on the mix bus. Don’t worry about being too specific, as long as you’re not going near or over 0dB. -3 to -6dB should be fine.
Bypass any limiters or maximisers on the output. You want to leave your peaks and transients untouched so that they can be controlled at the mastering stage.
Bounce your file at the project’s native sample rate at a high bit-depth (most commonly 24-bit/44.1kHz) with no dithering.
Leave a little extra gap at the beginning and end of the bounce to make sure you catch the first transients and any tails in the outro.
In an ideal world, your mix will sound close to finished so mastering is just the final 5%.

The Mastering Chain
The order of plugins in a mastering chain is largely dictated by the workflow. You want to start by removing harsh resonances and mud, before moving on to crafting a mono safe stereo image. With these set, you can get to the most important part, which includes balancing tone, controlling punch and hitting the target loudness. Throughout the process you should be checking your master alongside one or more references, and finally you need to do quality control to double check for any issues.
With Mastering The Mix’s plugins as a reference, the chain could look something like this:
RESO (remove harsh resonances and mud)
↓
STEREOVAULT (craft a mono safe stereo image)
↓
FASTER MASTER (tone, punch and target loudness)
↓
REFERENCE 3 (check tone and level against reference)
↓
EXPOSE 2 (catch quality control issues before release)
Step 1 – Fixing Resonances (using RESO)
Mastering The Mix RESO in a DAW. Image: MusicTech
You could think of this stage as taking away the bits that you don’t want. Things like boxy build-ups (300-500Hz), harsh peaks (2-5K), or boomy bass notes.
A static EQ can be too destructive as it permanently dulls the track in that region, even when the problem isn’t there. Instead, try a dynamic EQ such as RESO, as it only pulls the frequency down when the problem appears and rings out.
To help pinpoint unwanted resonances, it’s beneficial to first calibrate your ears using a well-mixed reference. You can then loop a chorus or full section of your track and listen for any resonances that poke out. Add an instance of RESO, hold CNTRL and sweep the display to pinpoint them. Then you can click to add a node and pull it down until the ringing disappears.
You have to be careful, as overdoing it and pulling down too many resonances can start to eat away at the overall tone. There are probably only around 4 to 8 resonances that will be worth reducing. Also, it’s best to avoid cuts below around 250Hz as it can remove too much energy. If you can, it’s better to sort low-end issues in the mix instead.
Here we’ve notched out several resonances including a noticeable ring on the snare.

Step 2 – Setting the stereo image (using FASTER MASTER)
Mastering The Mix Faster Master in a DAW. Image: MusicTech
Stereo width can make a master sound bigger and more expensive, but it can also make it fall apart. Push too hard and it can sound weak and hollow. You also need to be careful to make sure your mix stands up in mono in case it’s played from a phone speaker or mono club system. If there are stereo phase issues in the mix then you may lose some information in mono, resulting in sounds or low end that reduce in volume. You want to make sure that you’re using a stereo tool that can control different areas of the spectrum in a phase-safe way. STEREOVAULT and the Stereo module in FASTER MASTER are good for this.
Low and low-mids (below 250Hz)
Reducing the width below 100Hz is recommended to keep the low-end phase safe and focused. That said, a small amount of mono-compatible width can sometimes work in the region from 100 – 250Hz to make the lows feel a little bigger.
High-mid and high-end
Widening the top end of a mix can be useful for opening up the cymbals, air, reverbs and pad-type sounds. It can make a track feel bigger without putting the low-end at risk.
Be sure to use references to check your width in each region against similar tracks, and always double-check for sounds disappearing in mono. In this example we’ve narrowed the low end as it was a bit too wide, and have significantly opened up the high mids and tops to help create more space.

Step 3 – Tone, dynamics, punch and loudness (using FASTER MASTER)
We now get to the meat of the mastering process where we can use EQ, compression, limiting and possibly saturation to shape the output. We’re looking to get an even tone that compares well with our references, alongside consistent dynamics, and a competitive overall volume.
We’re using FASTER MASTER for this stage as it has all of these processes in one. It also has a Smart Preset feature that analyses your track and presents 10 tailored preset options as a starting point. You can also load your own reference tracks as a source to match the EQ and stereo spread.
When working on EQ and compression whilst mastering, you should be making small and broad moves. If it feels like you need to do anything drastic, then it’s best to go back to the mix if you can. FASTER MASTER includes an 11-band EQ plus simple transient, compression and stereo modules. You choose a target LUFS volume in the limiter module, and then everything is automatically level matched as you make changes. In this way you’re always just listening to true tonal differences without being fooled by volume.
Don’t make adjustments just because you can. Make sure there’s a reason for it. Listen to the thickness of the mix and how the drums punch through. If they sound a little too prominent and there’s a lot of space in the mix, then a touch of compression or even transient reduction might make everything feel fuller. If it’s already sounding full, then you may not need to compress at all, and in fact a small amount of subtle transient boost could add life to the percussive elements.
For this master, we dipped some low-mid mud and lifted the upper-mids and tops, very slightly reduced the punch, added a touch of compression and drive, and set the LUFS to -7.

Step 4 – Comparing against a reference
Mastering The Mix Reference in a DAW. Image: MusicTech
Your ears can adjust when listening to the same track over a long period of time. It’s not uncommon to come back to a track the next day and suddenly hear a bunch of mistakes that you got used to. The best solution to avoid this is to listen to relevant, level-matched reference tracks before and during the mixing and mastering process.
A tool like REFERENCE 3 makes this much easier as it lets you build up a library of commercial tracks to recall in any session. It sets the matched loudness and auto-loops the loudest section so you can instantly start A/B-ing back and forth at the click of a button.
Try soloing different regions of your track and flicking back and forth with your reference to see how they stack up in terms of spectral content, punch and width. Don’t get caught up in trying to copy it perfectly, but use it more as a guide. This is where it can be useful to work with more than one reference.
If you’re still unsure where your mix/master needs work, then REFERENCE3 offers visual feedback on where to boost or cut your EQ, or to widen or narrow the stereo image to more closely match the reference.
Step 5 – Quality Control on the final file
After all the work that you’ve put in, the last thing you want is a file being sent for distribution with errors. Listen closely through the bounced file with headphones to check for anything you may have missed.
You can also use a standalone app like EXPOSE 2, which checks for the problems you can’t always hear. It can scan multiple tracks and flag issues like true-peak overshoots, mono compatibility issues, sudden loudness jumps between sections, or a low-end that’s heavier than you thought. If you find a specific problem, then you can go back in and pinpoint how it can be fixed with further processing or editing.
With a little patience and ear training, it’s possible to get great results doing in-the-box mastering at home. These plugins won’t master your track for you, but they can help guide you in the right direction and take some of the guesswork out of the equation. If you can get used to following a set routine to iron out problems and balance your audio, then it makes it easier to trust your decisions each time.
The All Plugins Bundle includes the plugins used here: RESO, FASTER MASTER, REFERENCE 3, and EXPOSE 2 (plus STEREOVAULT, LEVELS, FUSER, BASSROOM, MIXROOM, LIMITER & ANIMATE) and is available for £259
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