What Is the Difference Between Mixing and Mastering a Song?
The main concern with many artists is to make incredible lyrics and record music. Then, they create a video and wait for the song to be edited and released. This process is generally done by audio engineers and music producers to ensure high-quality music gets released. However, someone who is a beginner in the music industry often gets confused about: what is the difference between mixing and mastering a song.
The most asked questions are- which one is better: mixing or mastering? Can I do mixing or mastering online? And more! Due to this confusion, many lack an understanding of the fundamental nature of these terms. But don’t worry! We have come up with an exploration of this subject to make everything clear to you!
The Basic Process of Creating a Song
Do you know the process to create a song? There are many steps involved in making a song. Each phase has a team member, but together, they create magic. Here is the process of making a song:
Basic Song Idea
Creating a basic idea for making the song is the first step toward an excellent project. It is the first step before you enter the studio.
Note Down Ideas
It is important to note down the idea, and this helps you prevent losing the idea and gives you a reference point if you need to change anything. There are various ways in which you can pin your idea, and you can either write it down on the sheets or jam it in your DAW. Apart from that, you can also record yourself on the smartphone while humming or singing the melody’s notes. It is an alternative option to note down the song idea.
Record and Track
After you have figured out everything, you can visit the studio and record the vocals and instruments of the music. Recording and tracking songs give a raw version of music, and polishing is necessary. That is where mixing and mastering comes into play.
Mixing and Mastering
Mixing and mastering polish the recorded song ensures it sounds great and is ready for release. They both are the key to audio management.
What Is Music Mixing?
Mixing, also called mix engineering, includes the creation of premium-quality sonic representation where the engineers balance all the elements so that nothing feels excessive. Additionally, the sound engineer brings all the elements together, resolves any issues, and incorporates missing components to achieve the best results.
Types of Music Mixing
There are many types of music mixing, including mixing voice with minus and multitrack mixing. Let us discuss them in brief:
Mix Vocals with Instrumentals
This type of format is famous among aspiring performers. In mix-minus, you take the complete audio mix and remove one specific element, generally a single voice, from it. Overall, you are producing music where everything is there except for the subtracted voice track.
It helps ensure a uniform balance in terms of dynamics, volume, spatial presence, and more.
Multitrack Mixing
Experienced performers often choose this format, as it provides several perks. Multitrack mixing includes merging individual recorded elements of music into an adhesive final mix. The individual track in the multitrack shows a different instrument or vocal part. It lets the sound engineer apply effects, adjust levels, and make the essential changes to achieve the desired sound.
How to Mix a Song?
Mixing a song includes many key steps to ensure cohesive and balanced audio. Glance at the steps:
Step 1: Once the client has given you the song, the first thing you have to do is check if all the file formats are proper and if they have given a proper name to the files.
Step 2: After that, the sound engineer does the basic balancing of the tracks, which takes the project to further processing.
Step 3: When the engineer gets the song to this point, the audio sounds good, and there is no need for balancing. Generally, they start with trimming the frequencies of the elements in order.
They have two options to approach here, and both are good ones. It is just what they personally choose.
- Do a full processing of the single track, then move forward to the next one.
- EQ all tracks, compress them and add other effects to them.
Step 4: After cutting out the ‘unused frequencies”, they generally work on the dynamic inconsistencies if there are any. The next step is to boost some of the good frequencies and complete the frequency balance of the element.
Step 5: After completing the technical aspects of mixing, engineers use effects to add creativity and depth to the audio.
Next, they check how the mix is performing in mono, try it on a laptop or phone, and check on many systems to see how the song is playing on various devices. Once the engineers are satisfied with the mix, they take the next step, mastering. Mastering is the process where the song is refined for the final distribution.
When they start this process, they first send the mixed version to the client or the mastering engineer.
What Is Mastering in Music?
Mastering is the final stage, where the engineers refine the mixed track. The main aim of mastering is to address minor mixing mistakes, which helps achieve optimal audio quality for the track. After all this, engineers prepare for release on different media and platforms.
Types of Mastering in Music
In music, mastering can be categorized into different types, such as analog mastering and digital mastering. Go through both of them:
Analog Mastering
Analog mastering includes high-quality and costly sound recording and processing equipment. Moreover, this involves various mastering equalizers, compressors, limiters, and other devices. It is not the same as digital mastering, where digital software and processors are used. Additionally, analog mastering helps improve the quality of sound, create a more tactile experience, and add timeless character to music.
Digital Mastering
Digital mastering is the process where the song is prepared for distribution using digital techniques. This mastering is used to make the music clearer and louder, and it better suits different formats. In addition, digital mastering offers several benefits, including cost-effectiveness, precision, and ease of revision. Also, digital mastering can heighten audio clarity.
How to Master a Song?
It is a technical process since mastering is the last stage in making the audio sound professional. Here, the music engineers do their magic to get the best quality outcome for your music. The engineers enhance the overall sound to make it clearer, louder, and more consistent across different playback systems.
They start by optimizing your listening surroundings and snoring so your mix is not clipping. Then, they import your mixed audio file into a new project and use different tools like EQ, saturation, and compression to limit the control of dynamics and fix the tone. Finally, they take a look at your levels, make the loudness sound normal, and bounce the file at 16 bits and 44.1kHz.
Mixing vs. Mastering: Main Differences
Mixing and mastering are the final stages of music production. However, the mixing process is done before the mastering process. This is one of the significant differences between the two. Mixing is the process of converting the tracks into a song so that they sound incredible together. Mastering is the final stage, where the mixed song gets refined before releasing it.
So, let's briefly know the difference between mixing and mastering a song.
Mixing
Mixing a song includes many practices, like compressing the dynamics, balancing the levels, cutting out the bad or good frequencies, and sound panning the elements. Moreover, it also includes adding time, such as reverb, delay, and chorus. Here are the basic steps of mixing a song, these are:
Confirm Final Version
After the client has given you the song, the first thing to do is check whether the documents are in the correct file format or not. You also have to check if proper names are mentioned on the documents. It is a crucial step to follow, as you cannot start if the song is saved in an unedited file format.
Balance the Mix
This step does the basic balancing of the track and sets the audio project for further processing and editing.
Trim Frequencies
Once the engineer has balanced the song, the audio sounds good without processing and trimming the frequencies of its elements. There are two approaches an engineer can choose from. They can choose to process individual tracks, move on to the next one, and add the effects later. It is always about what you choose, but it is recommended that you choose the first step.
Fix Dynamics
After that, you trim the bad frequencies, and you have to fix the dynamic inconsistencies, if any. This step also includes boosting the good frequencies and completing the frequency balance of the music’s elements. Listeners focus on the song as a whole rather than its individual elements.
Add Effects
Once the engineer is done with the technical parts of the music, now they can use the song to add space and more creative mixing. There are many other techniques, and it depends on how professional the engineer is.
Now, the engineer has mixed the song, and they can move forward to the master process to complete the client’s project. However, you can also make the client listen to the mixed song and provide you with feedback before starting with the mastering.
It's time to understand what mastering is all about!
Mastering
Mastering is the final stage in music production. In mastering, the engineers work with the mixed tracks and polish the audio before they hand them over to the client for launching a release.
The main aim of mastering is to improve the volume of the track, make the audio sound better, and make sure the song sounds good on all systems. In addition, mastering also includes creating a balance. However, it is not like mixing; mastering balances the complete song rather than a single component of the track.
Overall, mixing and mastering a song elevates a track and creates a best-balanced playback on various devices.
A Quick Recap
This concludes the explanation of what is the difference between mixing and mastering a song. Both mixing and mastering are important processes in music production, and each plays a unique role in adding that magic to the music. Mixing focuses on creatively blending individual elements, while mastering ensures the final product is cohesive and ready for release. Moreover, when an artist chooses a professional mixing and mastering service, it can provide them with a polished final product.