Over the years, many people have asked, "Why is it important to master? What actually goes on during mastering?" 

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The main goal of mastering is to balance the tonality of each track not only within itself, but also to balance each track with all the other tracks on the record. It's also essential that the volume of each individual track match the volume of the other tracks, so that you don't find yourself reaching for the volume knob while you're listening back.

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Once all the tracks have been balanced with each other for EQ and volume, the overall volume is set so that your record's volume level compares favorably with other records in the same genre. I personally do not support the "loudness wars". Louder is not always better! It's important to keep in mind that a folk record does not want to be as loud and compressed as a hard rock record. I am always respectful of  the needs of the style of music I am mastering!

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Once all of the above is done, the next step is to set the spacing between the songs and make a reference CD for  you to listen to and approve. After your approval, I will make a DDP master to send or upload to the duplication plant.