How to Master a Song - Simple 7 Step Mastering Formula

How To Master A Song

The simple 7 step formula for mastering your
songs like the pros.

BY ROB WILLIAMS

ROB WILLIAMS
PROSOUNDFORMULA.COM, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Rob Williams - ProSoundFormula.com, All Rights Reserved 2

 Intro
Mastering has been made out to be some form of black-voodoo that can
only be practiced by an ancient master of the craft whos been at it for the
past 43 years. While that may help, I think its been blown way out of
proportion.

Having worked as a professional mastering engineer for many years,

using home-recording grade equipment to master tracks for radio, TV,
and lm, I can show you how its done without all the fancy gear.

Im here to tell you that you can learn to master your own music, and
while it may take years to become a genuine master, I want to show you
the shortcuts to getting commercial quality results in a fraction of the
time.

You dont need the best gear or plugins, and you dont need any special
ability or talent. You just need a love for music and a passion for making
great sounding music.

Remember, people (your fans) dont care how you do it, all they care
about is whether they like the song or not and whether it sounds good to
their ears.

YOU DONT NEED THE BEST GEAR OR PLUGINS,

AND YOU DONT NEED ANY SPECIAL ABILITY OR
TALENT.
 How to Master a Song - Simple 7 Step Mastering Formula

The way music is made and released is changing all the time. Mastering
was once the process of transferring the audio recording onto a wax
master (a little before my time). Now it can be as simple as a couple of
plugins on your mix bus.

The important part to remember is that its the nal link in the chain.
Mastering is the last set of processes before a track is released to the
world and thats why its so important.

Its not going to change the song, how well / badly it was recorded or
played, or whether the lead singer could sing or not, but it will make the
most of it. Simply put, a great master wont make a poor track great, but a
poor master can somewhat ruin an otherwise great track.

So, what do you say we start improving those masters of yours? I hope
this short book will help get you started

Rob Williams - ProSoundFormula.com, All Rights Reserved 4

 Contents
What is mastering?

Why master?

The 5 Purposes of Mastering

#1: The Final Check

#2: Consistency

#3: Enhancement

#4: Album ow

#5: Final formatting

The 7 Step Mastering Formula

Step #1: Prepare it

Step #2: Fix it

Step #3: Enhance it

Step #4: Compress it

Step #5: Clip it

Step #6: Limit it

Step #7: Reference it

Summary checklist

More resources
 What is mastering?
You can think of mastering as the nal step in the audio production
process. Theres a lot of complicated denitions out there, but the
simplest denition of mastering is this;

Mastering is the process of nalizing an audio track or album by both

enhancing it and preparing it for nal release.

In even simpler terms Mastering is really just getting your music ready
to be released to the world. Were doing a bunch of stu to it to make it
sound its best, and were getting it in the right format so that your fans
can buy it, listen to it, and enjoy it. Thats it!

Of course, this doesnt tell you too much about what mastering actually
is and if youre asking the question what is mastering?, my guess is that
youre probably looking for more than a basic denition.

So, if youd like a better idea of what mastering is, the role it plays in
music production, and how it can be used to transform the sound of your
tracks, check out my mastering beginners guide over here:

http://prosoundformula.com/mastering-music-beginners-guide/
 Why master?
If you want your music to compete with other commercial tracks, if you
want your songs to sound their best, and if you want your music to be
taken seriously and make an impact in the world, its essential that its
mastered properly.

Do you absolutely have to master your music?? No. The music police
arent going to come looking for you, I promise

If your music is only going to be listened to by you, and maybe a few

friends and family, and youre not too concerned about getting
commercial quality, you can skip the mastering and close this tab.

However, Ive yet to meet any musician who says the sound isnt that
important to me thats like a photographer saying that they dont care
how their photos look, as long as people can see them!

Im sure I dont need to convince you, though The fact that youre here
means youre obviously searching for the answers to make your music
sound great. If youd like some more specic reasons you should master
your tracks, check out this page:

http://prosoundformula.com/mastering-music-beginners-guide/

IF YOU WANT YOUR MUSIC TO BE TAKEN

SERIOUSLY AND MAKE AN IMPACT IN THE
WORLD, ITS ESSENTIAL THAT ITS MASTERED.
 The 5 Purposes of
Mastering
Mastering isnt random, mysterious, or accidental (as much as some
professional mastering engineers may want you to believe that). There
are very specic objectives that we need to accomplish in every mastering
session in order to be able to say, this track has been mastered.

Now let me ask you this if you dont know what these specic objectives
are, how can you ever achieve them?!

Dont worry, Im not picking on you ;) Youre one of the very few people
actually taking the time to gure this out properly. For a long time my
idea of mastering a song was to make it sound cool, or to make it sound
loud and thats about where it ended. While both these things may be
worthwhile goals, theyre only one part of mastering.

The bottom line is, most people have no idea what theyre supposed to
be doing while mastering their music and so they never get anywhere.
The good news is, this will no longer be you! Im going to show you what
the ve specic purposes of mastering are so that youll know exactly
what you need to accomplish while mastering your tracks.
 #1: The Final Check
The mastering phase is the last chance we have to
check the track for any problems and make sure that
its ready to be release to the world.
 How to Master a Song - Simple 7 Step Mastering Formula

The rst key objective of mastering is to make sure the music doesnt have any problems
and it sounds the way we want it to.

The nal check simply means the last chance to check the track for any mistakes or
problems. Because mastering is the last phase in the audio production process, this is
where we have to make the nal call about the song or album.

After the track is mastered its sent out to the world and cant be changed (well, it
could be changed, but you can never get back all the copies that have been duplicated or
downloaded).

If youre doing your own mastering, its a

good idea to get some objective ears in there
someone who hasnt heard the track a million IF YOURE DOING
times. Its amazing how quickly we lose YOUR OWN
perspective after listening to something over
and over again. Often its the most obvious MASTERING, ITS A
things that we totally miss. GOOD IDEA TO GET
Unfortunately, we cant un-listen to SOME OBJECTIVE
something, so the only two options are;
EARS IN THERE.
1. Take a break and come back to it after a
few hours / days / weeks (depending on how sick
of listening to it you are!)

2. Ask some musician friends to take a listen and give you their rst impressions.

A little word of advice on asking for feedback dont ask someone, What do you think
is wrong with this?. It sets you up for failure because they will look for something wrong,
and often come up with the most random things that are completely irrelevant. If you ask
someone to spot all the problems, theyll look for things just because they dont want to
come across as stupid or unaware.

All you need are some honest rst impressions, so just give the song to a few people
and tell them to let you know what they think. Also, always keep in mind that no one is
truly objective, so just take all comments with a pinch of salt.

Rob Williams - ProSoundFormula.com, All Rights Reserved 10

 How to Master a Song - Simple 7 Step Mastering Formula

#2: Consistency
The second key objective of mastering is to make
sure that the sound is consistent with other
commercial songs.

Rob Williams - ProSoundFormula.com, All Rights Reserved 11

 How to Master a Song - Simple 7 Step Mastering Formula

The second thing we must make sure that all our masters have is something I call
consistency. All this really means is that the sound of our music is relatively consistent
from one playback system to the next.

Have you ever listened to one of your songs and thought it sounded cool on one
system, but then sounded terrible on another? Yet commercial songs sound great played
back on pretty much any system. This is what consistency is all about.

You never know where your songs are going to be played, or which devices your fans
are going to be listening to them on, so we must make sure that our tracks sound great
on the majority of playback systems. The easiest
way to do this is to compare to other commercial
tracks and check that the overall frequency
balance and levels are within the same range.
WE MUST MAKE
Im not going to sugar coat it this is often SURE THAT OUT
the most challenging part of mastering. But with
the right training and a bit of practice, youll be SONGS ARE
on top of this in no time! CONSISTENT WITH
Let me give you a few examples and I think it OTHER COMMERCIAL
will already start making more sense
TRACKS SO THAT
Consistent frequency balance If you THEY SOUND GREAT
picked a couple of commercial songs from
dierent musical genres and played them one NO MATTER WHERE
after another, youd notice that they all have a THEYRE PLAYED.
similar tonal balance. Sure, a dance song will
have more bass than a folk tune, but its not so
drastic that you have to change all your settings
to compensate for it. This is no accident. In the
mastering phase, we need to make sure that the overall frequency balance is within the
same range as other similar commercial tracks so that it will sound consistent when
played back on various systems.

Consistent mix Say for example the bass line in a song is very important, its the
main hook. An important question we need to ask is, if someone plays this song back on
their laptop, are they going to be able to hear that bass line?.

Rob Williams - ProSoundFormula.com, All Rights Reserved 12

 How to Master a Song - Simple 7 Step Mastering Formula

If the song has a lot of sub bass but not enough low-mid range bass, it may sound big
and fat on systems with a subwoofer, but smaller systems cant reproduce the sub bass
and the bass line may as well not even be in there. In a case like this, we may need to use
an EQ or bass enhancer to add some low-mids in order to get the bass to cut through on
smaller systems.

Consistent levels Consistency can also apply to level consistency. If a song has too
much dynamic range (very soft and very loud parts) the listener may have to keep
adjusting their volume which can become annoying. Dynamic range is very genre
dependent so the main thing is just to compare your levels with other tracks of a similar
style.

The bottom line is, if our songs are consistent with commercial standards, theyll
sound consistent on the majority of playback systems.

Rob Williams - ProSoundFormula.com, All Rights Reserved 13

 How to Master a Song - Simple 7 Step Mastering Formula

#3: Enhancement
The third purpose of mastering is to improve the
sound of the overall song.

Rob Williams - ProSoundFormula.com, All Rights Reserved 14

 How to Master a Song - Simple 7 Step Mastering Formula

An enhancement is anything that makes the overall song sound better in some way.
There are no specic rules when it comes to enhancing a track if it sounds better, it is
better!

This could be anything from using a stereo widener to make the track sound bigger,
adding some subtle reverb, making some EQ tweaks, using a bass enhancer, or adding
compression to make the song sound more aggressive.

Loudness could also be an enhancement. Most artists / record companies want their
music to be as loud as possible because they think that this will give the track an edge.
Despite the whole loudness war debate, Im not the one to judge whether this is good or
bad its your music and you get to decide. If you think louder is better, then its better.

There really are no rules, and you often dont know whether something will work or
not until you try it. So my advice is to simply try a couple of dierent plugins, and then
switch between bypassing and enabling various combinations to hear whether it makes a
signicant improvement or not.

Always keep in mind that when it comes to mastering were focussed on the overall
sound, so you should only add things that benet the entire song, not just one or two
instruments. For example, a bass enhancer plugin may make the low end sound fat, but
if it makes the vocals sound muddy or boomy its not worth putting on. If you really want
to fatten up the bass its best to then go back to the mix session and add it only to the
bass track.

AN ENHANCEMENT IS ANYTHING THAT MAKES THE

OVERALL SONG SOUND BETTER IN SOME WAY.

Rob Williams - ProSoundFormula.com, All Rights Reserved 15

 How to Master a Song - Simple 7 Step Mastering Formula

#4: Album flow

The fourth purpose of mastering is about laying out
the album and making sure it flows nicely from track
to track.

Rob Williams - ProSoundFormula.com, All Rights Reserved 16

 How to Master a Song - Simple 7 Step Mastering Formula

Although iTunes and music streaming services have taken over the world, and singles are
the new hot thing, I dont think the album is ever going to go away. The real fans always
buy the album. Think about it, no matter how great a song is, you can only listen to it so
many times before you get sick of it!

That said, if youre making an album, theres a lot more to it than just throwing the
songs on a disc and clicking the burn button. (Do people still burn CDs?)

Think about a live concert youve been to, the basic format probably went something
like this: A couple of louder songs up front, some slower ballads in the middle, and then
ending o with a few big numbers. If theres an encore, theyll often play a couple more
songs and then round o the set with a mellow track to calm everyone down and end o
the evening.

You could think of the ow of an album in a similar way. An album isnt just a random
collection of songs, its a performance. We need to make sure that the end of one song
ows nicely into the beginning of the next song, and the beginning of each song sounds
good having just listened to the song before it.

You may have noticed that on some albums the tracks ow seamlessly from one to
the next (especially live albums), while most studio albums typically have a two second
space between tracks.

The cool part is, its your album and you get to decide :)

AN ALBUM ISNT JUST A RANDOM COLLECTION OF

SONGS, ITS A PERFORMANCE.

Rob Williams - ProSoundFormula.com, All Rights Reserved 17

 How to Master a Song - Simple 7 Step Mastering Formula

#5: Final formatting

The fifth purpose of mastering is to finalize the song
or album and apply the correct final formatting so
that its ready for release.

Rob Williams - ProSoundFormula.com, All Rights Reserved 18

 How to Master a Song - Simple 7 Step Mastering Formula

Final formatting pertains to the practical and technical stu we have to do to get the song
/ album into the nal media format that someones going to listen to.

Naming the tracks, putting fade-ins and fade-outs, and saving to the desired format
are common things that have to get done during the mastering phase.

We want to make sure that each track starts and nishes seamlessly. By putting a very
short fade-in at the start, and fading out the end, it will make the transitions sound a lot
smoother. You dont want hear the fade, youre basically just fading in and out the track
hiss. (If you listen on headphones at a high
volume youll notice that theres some natural
noise just before the song starts and right at the
end when the music fades out, thats what Im
talking about) BY PUTTING A VERY
SHORT FADE-IN AT
A little tip to keep in mind, most CD players
tend to cut o the rst few milliseconds of a THE START, AND
track. So you want to account for that by putting
FADING OUT THE
in a little bit of space right at the beginning.
Whether or not your songs will get played on a END, IT WILL MAKE
CD, its best to be on the safe side. I generally THE TRANSITIONS
add in between 100ms 500ms of blank space
before the actual music starts. (If you import SOUND A LOT
some commercial tracks into your software you SMOOTHER.
should notice the same)

In terms of bit depth and sample rate, the

industry standard is still CD quality which is
44.1kHz, 16bit. If youre selling your songs as digital
downloads, export your master at these settings and then make MP3s (or whatever
format you want) from that. If you are making digital downloads, make sure to embed
tags with the artist and song info, album art, etc.

Rob Williams - ProSoundFormula.com, All Rights Reserved 19

 The 7 Step
Mastering Formula
Whether they recognize it or not, all the professionals have a set way of
doing something, a success formula if you will. Its this system that they
use which gets them consistent results over and over again.

Now, of course, every track is dierent, and the specic eects and
settings applied will change from song to song. But the basic steps stay
the same.

To avoid any confusion, I just want to make it clear that these steps are
not all compulsory. For example, you dont have to compress (step #4)
every master and you may not need to x (step #2) anything, that
depends on the mix.

This method is simply meant to help guide you through the various
mastering options so that you know youve covered all your bases and got
the best master possible.

Try it out and hear what works for you and your music, and then decide
for yourself what you want to stick with and what you want to throw out.
 The 7 Step
Mastering Formula
Step #1: Prepare it
Whether they recognize it or not, all the professionals have a set way of
doing something, a success formula if you will. Its this system that they
use which gets them consistent results over and over again.
TheNow,
firstof step in the 7 step mastering formula is to
course, every track is dierent, and the specic eects and
prepare
settings it. Before
applied wefrom
will change getsong
going,
to song. we need
But the to get
basic steps stay the
the same.
final mix ready for mastering.
To avoid any confusion, I just want to make it clear that these steps are
not all compulsory. For example, you dont have to compress (step #4)
every master and you may not need to x (step #2) anything, that
depends on the mix.

This method is simply meant to help guide you through the various
mastering options so that you know youve covered all your bases and got
the best master possible.

Try it out and hear what works for you and your music, and then decide
for yourself what you want to stick with and what you want to throw out.
 How to Master a Song - Simple 7 Step Mastering Formula

Export your multi-track mix to a stereo file

Mastering starts when the mix nishes. Its important that we export our mix session
correctly otherwise it can make mastering a lot more dicult than it has to be.

Make sure that you leave at least 3dB 6dB of headroom when you export your nal
mix. If you look at the master meter, you want the peaks (loudest parts) to be around
3dB to 6dB below the digital clipping point.

If you export your mix too hot (too loud) there wont be any room for the mastering
processes to be applied, so if you need to bring everything down in level a little bit, do
that before you export it.

Rob Williams - ProSoundFormula.com, All Rights Reserved 22

 How to Master a Song - Simple 7 Step Mastering Formula

Try and get your mix peaking in the sweet spot about 3db 6db below 0.

Although mastering is done in many dierent ways these days, to keep it simple its
best to export (a.k.a. bounce) your multi-track mix session to a stereo uncompressed
format such as .wav or .ai.

We want to make sure that its kept at the highest resolution possible so that we dont
lose quality as we start to add the various mastering processes. I like to master at 96kHz,
24bit, as it seems to hold up better to the various mastering plugins and processing.

We wont go into all the technical details here, but basically, every plugin you use
requires the computer to recalculate what the audio should sound like. This isnt a
perfect process, and small inaccuracies in these constant re-calculations are what lead to
things like noise, distortion, and other unwanted artifacts.

When you use a higher resolution theres more information contained in the audio le
and the computer can be more accurate when processing it. Its not that its making the
sound any better, its just better at preserving what was there in the rst place.

The important part to remember is just to use the highest resolution audio you can.

Rob Williams - ProSoundFormula.com, All Rights Reserved 23

 How to Master a Song - Simple 7 Step Mastering Formula

In case youre wondering why we wouldnt always just use the highest resolution settings
available

The biggest limitation is your computers processing power essentially the CPU.
When you work at 96kHz its having to do DOUBLE the work than at 48kHz. If youve got a
big mix session with 80 tracks, and plugins on each track, thats a lot of calculations the
computers trying to keep up with!

With big sessions, its often not practical (or possible) to record or mix at such a high
resolution. However, you can still convert your mix to 96kHz 24bit for mastering it may
not be quite as good, but it does help.

The reason we want to use a high resolution while mastering is because were
processing the entire track and we want to preserve as much of the quality as possible.

Always use 24 bit (or 32 bit if available). Never master at 16 bit. The only time you
should use 16 bit is when you export your nal master.

Sample rate doesnt make as big of a dierence as bit depth does, but it can help. Use
96kHz if possible (or higher if you like). If its not possible for some reason, 44.1kHz or
48kHz will do just ne.

Import 2 3 commercial reference tracks

Modeling the masters (no pun intended) is one of the most eective ways to rapidly
improve your sound and by masters I mean those who are the best at this in the world.

We always want to be comparing to the best.

MODELING THE MASTERS (NO PUN INTENDED) IS ONE

OF THE MOST EFFECTIVE WAYS TO RAPIDLY IMPROVE
YOUR SOUND.

Rob Williams - ProSoundFormula.com, All Rights Reserved 24

 How to Master a Song - Simple 7 Step Mastering Formula

Find two or three commercial tracks that are similar both in composition (the
instrumentation and the way its played) and in intensity (how mellow or aggressive the
track is). You want to import these into your actual mastering session so that you can
compare to them directly throughout the process.

The challenge is, our ears get used to hearing something in a certain way and very
quickly adapt to it. Im sure youve had the experience of mastering a track and starting to
think its sounding pretty cool until you compare it to a big commercial song!

Well, instead of wasting hours tweaking things and hoping for the best, we want to be
comparing to commercial references throughout the mastering process so that it keeps
us focussed on the ultimate goal.

Sometimes it can be a little discouraging when youre constantly comparing to the

very best in the world, but stick with it. If you can even get close to the best, itll be way
better than most of the mediocre stu out there.

Heres a quick summary:

Export your mix session with at least 3dB 6dB of headroom (i.e. Peaking at 3dB
6dB below digital clipping).

Import 2 3 commercial reference tracks that are similar in style and composition
to the song youre mastering.

Bit depth Use 24bit (or 32 bit if available). Never use 16 bit for recording, mixing, or
mastering. Only use 16 bit for your final mastered export.

Sample rate Use 96kHz (or higher if you like). If your computer struggles to keep
up, use 44.1kHz or 48kHz. Sample rate doesnt make as big of a difference as bit depth
does, so dont worry about it too much.

Rob Williams - ProSoundFormula.com, All Rights Reserved 25

 Step #2: Fix it
Step two is to fix it. Before we try to improve the
sound in some way, we must first fix any problems
so that were building on a solid foundation.
 How to Master a Song - Simple 7 Step Mastering Formula

Confucius says, You cant polish a turd Ok, so maybe it wasnt Confucius, but it was a
wise man indeed.

If youre not familiar with this saying, all it means is that no matter how much you try to
x and polish a bad sounding mix / recording / song etc, its still bad! Its still a turd.

Although theres a lot of truth to this, there is a lot we can do to x various problems in
the mastering phase. The rst step is learning to spot these issues in the rst place, so let
me give you a couple of common examples:

Excess noise Especially at the beginning and end of a song, and in any quiet gaps.

Distortion or digital clipping Unfortunately, theres not much you can do about
this in the mastering phase. Try and find the problem in the mix session if possible.

Low-end rumble Sometimes using an EQ with a high pass filter (low-cut) can help.

Harsh esses or cymbals Try a de-esser, or an EQ cut around 3kHz 8kHz.

A mixture of dull and bright elements This ones tricky, because using an EQ to fix
one problem will make the other problem worse. If possible, go back to the mix.

Over compressed You cant undo compression so rather use less compression
than you think you need during mixing.

Its beyond the scope of this short post to go into the cures for all these problems,
but just start to look out for them so that you can catch them earlier on in the production
process.

In general, the sooner in the chain you x a problem, the less compromise you have
to make later on.

For example, lets say that you have a problem with the cymbals sounding too harsh.

Rob Williams - ProSoundFormula.com, All Rights Reserved 27

 How to Master a Song - Simple 7 Step Mastering Formula

You could use an EQ in the mastering phase to reduce the high frequencies, but youre
going to be compromising all the other instruments in the mix including the vocals
which may then sound too dull.

Its far better to go back to your mix session and put the EQ directly onto the cymbal
track so that its only aecting the cymbals and nothing else.

THE SOONER IN THE CHAIN YOU FIX A PROBLEM, THE

LESS COMPROMISE YOU HAVE TO MAKE LATER ON.

Rob Williams - ProSoundFormula.com, All Rights Reserved 28

 Step #3: Enhance it
The third step in the mastering process is to
enhance it. An enhancement is anything that makes
the overall track sound better.
 How to Master a Song - Simple 7 Step Mastering Formula

One of the 5 purposes of mastering is to improve, or enhance, the overall sound in some
way.

Because sound is so subjective and dependent on the style of music, theres no way for
me to say, These are the things you must do every time! But to get you started, Im going
to give you some examples of common processes that are used during mastering. You
can go and try them out for yourself and see (hear) if they work for you.

Some plugins and suggestions you can try are:

EQ Can make a track sound clearer, brighter, warmer, fuller, etc. For example, often
a slight top end shelf boost can make a track sound more open and airy.

Valve emulator Adds a bit of thickness in the low end.

Tape emulator Adds subtle saturation and distortion which can make your master
sound more analog.

Compressor Can help glue the track together and make it sound more consistent.

Bass Enhancer Good for making the bass more prominent on a variety of systems,
especially if its lacking on smaller speakers.

Reverb A very small amount of reverb can help create a subtle sense of space
around a track.

Stereo widener If a track sounds too narrow or you want to make it sound a little
larger than life.

Exciter Makes your track sound brighter and edgier by adding harmonics.

Less is more
Now, a little word of advice, when it comes to mastering LESS IS MORE! In mastering,
were processing the entire track, so we dont want to go too crazy with any one process
or eect.

Rob Williams - ProSoundFormula.com, All Rights Reserved 30

 How to Master a Song - Simple 7 Step Mastering Formula

Its important to keep in mind that there really is no silver bullet when it comes to
mastering, or producing music in general. Theres no one plugin thats going to transform
your track from the proverbial frog into a prince.

If you nd yourself making big adjustments trying to make up for something thats
lacking, thats usually the sign that you need to go
back and rework the mix.

Its all the small, incremental improvements,

that add up in the end to make a BIG impact and IN MASTERING,
improvement to the sound. So, focus on making
WERE PROCESSING
small improvements and very subtle
enhancements with each plugin you use. THE ENTIRE TRACK,
SO WE DONT WANT
TO GO TOO CRAZY
Keep it simple
WITH ANY ONE
Along the same lines, dont fall into the trap of
PROCESS OR EFFECT
trying to use all 56 plugins you own all at once. (I
know, it can be very tempting)

Its easy to think that if each plugin is

improving the sound a little, then adding more
plugins must be the answer to life. But of course, just because youre adding something
doesnt mean that its getting better!

Keep it simple. Try as many things as you like, but dont feel like you need to keep all
of them. I like to put on a bunch of dierent plugins and then bypass them one at a time
to hear whether theyre actually making a real improvement or not.

If youre not sure where to start, try asking yourself questions about the sound.

e.g. What is this track lacking? Maybe it sounds a little thin so you try some valve
emulation or a bass enhancer. Or, perhaps it sounds a little dull try an exciter plugin; or
a high-shelf boost on your EQ.

The golden rule of enhancement is simple: If it sounds better, it is better.

Rob Williams - ProSoundFormula.com, All Rights Reserved 31

 Step #4: Compress it
Step four in the 7 step mastering formula is to
compress it. Compression can help us make louder,
more energetic sounding masters.
 How to Master a Song - Simple 7 Step Mastering Formula

Compression allows us to make the overall track sound louder. It can also add a sense of
energy and power to the mix.

The fact is, were not really making the track any louder, were just making the peaks
(those sticking out parts you see on the waveform in your sound editor) softer. When we
stop the peaks from jumping out so much, we can now bring up the overall level of the
track without it clipping.

So were essentially making the average level louder which sounds louder to our
ears. This is known as reducing the dynamic range of a track. Its a fancy sounding term
which basically just means making the loud parts and soft parts closer together in level.

Take a look at this illustration below to get a better idea of what dynamic range is:

Rob Williams - ProSoundFormula.com, All Rights Reserved 33

 How to Master a Song - Simple 7 Step Mastering Formula

A compressor reduces dynamic range by decreasing the level of the peaks. Once the
peaks are reduced, we can increase the overall level which makes everything sound
louder.

Im just going to be totally honest with you when youre starting out, compression
can be confusing. If you dont know what youre doing yet compression can easily do
more harm than good to your tracks. Of course, that shouldnt stop you from playing
around and experimenting, but Id really encourage you to learn how to use compressors
properly because theyre such an important part of modern music production.

Compressors come in all shapes, sizes, colors, tones, speeds, etc. Were not going be
able to get into all of that here, but I am going to give you some key points and some go-
to settings to get you started using compression in your mastering chain

Key points for using mastering compression

Compression is optional, its not essential to a great sounding master. If youre totally
clueless about compression rather leave it out for now.

If youve used compression on your mix buss while mixing, you shouldnt need to use
compression again during mastering youre essentially doing the same thing.

Keep it very subtle! The quickest way to make your master sound like an amateur
demo is to over compress it. Aim for about 1 2dB of gain reduction, 4dB at the absolute
most.

Since were processing the entire track, be careful of using compressors that color the
sound too much during mastering unless you really love the color :) Certain valve /
tube-modeled compressors can do this.

Rob Williams - ProSoundFormula.com, All Rights Reserved 34

 How to Master a Song - Simple 7 Step Mastering Formula

What about mastering with multi-band compressors?

A multi-band compressor is like a regular compressor on steroids its sort of like an EQ
and compressor combined. While your standard compressor processes the entire track
as one sound, a multi-band compressor breaks up the frequency spectrum into several
parts and enables you to compress each part dierently.

Let me give you a practical, real-world mastering example, to help you understand
how youd actually use a multi-band compressor

Lets say that youre mastering a song that has a powerful kick drum peaking out of
the mix. If you set up a regular compressor to reduce those peaks, each kick drum will
cause the compressor to bring down the entire level of the track at that point.

Rob Williams - ProSoundFormula.com, All Rights Reserved 35

 How to Master a Song - Simple 7 Step Mastering Formula

The vocals, the guitars, the pads, the bass they all get aected.

Using a multi-band compressor we have more control.

Because a kick drum has most of its energy in the low-end of the frequency spectrum,
we can tell the multi-band compressor to compress the low-end fairly aggressively so
that it sounds fat, tight, and consistent.

At the same time, we can use more a more gentle compression for the mid-range and
high frequencies so that the vocals and other instruments sound natural and not overly
compressed.

To see how I set up my multi-band compressor, watch my video How to Master a

Song if you havent done so already.

A MULTI-BAND COMPRESSOR IS LIKE A REGULAR

COMPRESSOR ON STEROIDS

Compression Made Simple

If you don't understand exactly what the various controls on a compressor are
doing, chances are, you're doing more harm to your songs than good.

Compression is a powerful tool that allows us to bring out the energy, power,
punch, and nuances in a track. Learning how to use it correctly is an essential
part of producing modern music.

If you're ready to master this skill and you'd like a simple, step by step guide,
check out my 'Compression Made Simple' program where I'll show you exactly
how to use the power of compression to bring out the best in your tracks. Click
below to nd out more.

http://prosoundformula.com/products/compression-made-simple
Rob Williams - ProSoundFormula.com, All Rights Reserved 36
 How to Master a Song - Simple 7 Step Mastering Formula

Mastering compression settings

Whenever you ask the pros for specics you tend to hear a bunch of ums, ahs, and
well that depends . Sure, it always depends on something or other, but this isnt very
helpful when youre starting out and just want some basic settings.

So, let me give you some go-to mastering compression settings to get you started. In
fact, Im just going to give you one of the cheat sheets right out of my Compression
Made Simple program. You can use this as a reference when mastering your tracks.

These are the basic settings I use when compressing my overall mix buss, or while
mastering a song..

Download the mastering compression cheat sheet here (its free):

http://prosoundformula.com/download/mastering-compression-cheat-sheet/

Rob Williams - ProSoundFormula.com, All Rights Reserved 37

 Step #5: Clip it
The 5th step to mastering your songs is to clip it. If
you like it loud, clipping is your friend!
 How to Master a Song - Simple 7 Step Mastering Formula

Have you ever compared one of your tracks to some insanely loud record and just shook
your head in disbelief? Wondering, How the hell do they do that?! It just seems
impossibly loud, doesnt it?

Well, Im gonna let you in on one of the sneaky techniques right out of the mastering
engineers playbook clipping.

Clipping is one of the secrets the pros use to create some of the loudest masters
youve ever heard. If you like it LOUD, clipping is
your friend. Or, more accurately, soft clipping.
(Hang in there, Ill explain that soon)

Now, clipping is generally associated with CLIPPING IS ONE OF

being a negative thing, something were always THE SECRETS THE
trying our very best to AVOID. So, why in the
name of all things good and holy would we want
PROS USE TO CREATE
to put something like this on our entire track?? SOME OF THE
Good question. Lets take a step back and LOUDEST MASTERS
look at what clipping actually is, and itll start to YOUVE EVER HEARD.
make sense.

Good clipping vs bad clipping

Basically, there are two types of clipping. You get
GOOD sounding clipping, and BAD sounding clipping.

Bad sounding clipping has a harsh, clicking sound to it. Its the type of clipping you
hear when you sing into a mic and the preamp is turned up way too high it doesnt
sound good.

The worst sounding clipping is pure digital clipping. Digital is far less forgiving than
analog because every sound you hear is really just a series of zeros and ones, its binary.

Rob Williams - ProSoundFormula.com, All Rights Reserved 39

 How to Master a Song - Simple 7 Step Mastering Formula

A regular section of recorded audio may look something like this on the binary level:

001110101001101101010110110101100101010111

What does digital clipping look like? Something like this:

000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

In other words, a computer doesnt have a value for an audio signal that goes above
digital 0. Once the signal goes above 0 youre in no mans land, its just a string of
numbers that doesnt sound very good to human ears.

This is generally known as hard clipping or digital clipping. The rule of thumb is: Hard
clipping should be AVOIDED at ALL phases of the recording, mixing, and mastering
process.

OK, so then where does clipping t into

mastering? And what is good clipping? Glad you
asked!
GOOD CLIPPING, OR Good clipping is any type of clipping that sounds
SOFT CLIPPING AS good. If you plug in an electric guitar and throw
on some overdrive thats some good sounding
ITS KNOWN, ADDS clipping youre hearing.
HARMONICS WHICH
Good clipping, or soft clipping as its known,
GENERALLY SOUND adds harmonics which generally sound pleasing
PLEASING TO OUR to our ears.

EARS. Before I go on, let me just put a small disclaimer

in here:

All sound is SUBJECTIVE and Im not saying that

clipping is good or bad. One mans music is
another mans noise! As a general rule, soft clipping works on more aggressive styles of
music such as rock or metal, but should be avoided on more natural, mellow styles I
cant imagine ever wanting to clip a mellow acoustic track or classical number.

Rob Williams - ProSoundFormula.com, All Rights Reserved 40

 How to Master a Song - Simple 7 Step Mastering Formula

With that said, soft clipping can be used in the mastering phase to squeeze out that extra
little bit of volume you may be looking for. The pros tend to use very expensive analog to
digital converters which happen to have some fancy built-in circuits which prevent digital
overloads.

It didnt take long for certain mastering engineers to gure out that overloading the
converters would activate the soft clipping circuit, and increase the level of the music in a
good sounding way.

Still confused? Instead of me spending another thousand words trying to explain

clipping, let me just show you this picture

So, by now you may be thinking Thats all great Rob, youve just told me about
something which sounds extremely complicated, and I cant aord anyway!

Rob Williams - ProSoundFormula.com, All Rights Reserved 41

 How to Master a Song - Simple 7 Step Mastering Formula

Hang on a second

Now that we know what the mastering pros are doing, we can try to mimic that using
some kind of plugin. And, it just so happens that theres a plugin thats relatively
aordable, and does exactly what weve been talking about.

The T-Racks Soft Clipper

The T-RackS Soft Clipper from IK Multimedia is a great option for getting the power of clipping right inside your DAW
and at a fraction of the price of outboard units.

As the name implies, the T-RackS Soft clipper is a well, exactly that a soft clipper.
Ive personally used this plugin and gotten a lot of success from it over the years.

Rob Williams - ProSoundFormula.com, All Rights Reserved 42

 How to Master a Song - Simple 7 Step Mastering Formula

Its simple to setup, and if used correctly can give you that extra level youve been looking
for with minimal side eects.

While it may never live up to something that costs a hundred times its price, it
certainly does the job, and will fool 99% of people (i.e. Your fans).

If you want to nd out more about the soft clipper plugin and check the current price,
here it is: T-RackS Soft Clipper

They also oer it in a few dierent bundles. The Classic bundle gives you an EQ,
compressor, and limiter, along with the clipper. Ive gotten great results mastering with
nothing but the T-rackS Classic bundle (which is the cheapest bundle that the clipper is
included in).

You can nd out more about that over here: T-RackS Classic bundle

Rob Williams - ProSoundFormula.com, All Rights Reserved 43

 Step #6: Limit it
The sixth step is to limit it. Limiting is the final
process applied to all masters to bring them up to
commercial level.
 How to Master a Song - Simple 7 Step Mastering Formula

A limiter can help you to make your masters as loud as possible without clipping. It can
also help to glue a track together, making it sound more like one piece of music instead
of a collection of instruments.

Even if you do absolutely nothing else during mastering, make sure that you use a
limiter. In fact, if the mix is really good, often the only thing you need is a limiter to nish
o your master.

So, how exactly does a limiter work? (I hear you ask) Let me give you a metaphor

EVEN IF YOU DO ABSOLUTELY NOTHING ELSE DURING

MASTERING, MAKE SURE THAT YOU USE A LIMITER.

Rob Williams - ProSoundFormula.com, All Rights Reserved 45

 How to Master a Song - Simple 7 Step Mastering Formula

Cars have rev limiters tted to them to prevent ______ (enter idiots name here) from
blowing their engine and then trying to sue the car company. A rev limiter basically limits
the revs from getting too high and causing some serious damage.

Audio limiters prevent sound from going higher than a certain point and causing
digital clipping we call that point the threshold.

Digital clipping happens at 0dB. As far as digital audio is concerned, there is no value
for anything above 0dB, so it just outputs a harsh clipping sound which we always want
to avoid.

However, we also want our masters to sound loud or at least in the same volume
range as other commercial masters. The problem is, if we bring up the overall level of a
track, the audio peaks (those sticking out parts you see on an audio waveform) are going
to start clipping.

So, what do we do? Simple, we put on a limiter.

A limiter allows as to bring up the overall level of the track without letting the peaks
clip. Magic! Now, if that sounds too good to be true, youd be right there are side eects
which we do need to watch out for.

Now of course, like anything, there is a limit (no pun intended) to which we can push a
limiter before it starts sounding obviously compressed.

The more we limit a track, the more the peaks get squashed down into the mix.
Drums and percussion are typically most aected by this and will start to lose their attack
and punchiness.

Rob Williams - ProSoundFormula.com, All Rights Reserved 46

 How to Master a Song - Simple 7 Step Mastering Formula

Mastering limiters
The type of limiter we want to use for mastering is known as a brick-wall limiter. Its
called that because it doesnt allow anything past it!

Basically, you get many types of limiters and theyre all doing a similar thing, but some
are more aggressive than others. Some limiters still allow part of the sound to still cross
over the threshold.

A brick-wall limiter doesnt allow any sound to

cross the threshold, which means you can set it
to just below the clipping point. A BRICK-WALL
LIMITER DOESNT
There are loads of great mastering limiter
options out there. Basically, any type of brick- ALLOW ANY SOUND
wall limiter will do.
TO CROSS THE
The limiters I use at the moment are either THRESHOLD, WHICH
the Waves L2 or L3. I really like them because
theyre quite transparent and dont make the
MEANS YOU CAN
track sound obviously compressed (as long as SET IT TO JUST BELOW
you dont push it more than about 4 5 dBs of
gain reduction).
THE CLIPPING POINT.

Mastering limiter settings

Firstly, a limiter should always be the very last process applied during mastering.

I set my limiters threshold to just below digital zero, -0.1. This means that no sound is
going to go past this level.

If Ive already used clipping, I generally aim for about 2dBs of gain reduction because
the peaks have already been chopped o to a certain extent.

If I havent used clipping, Ill go for about 2dB 4dB of gain reduction. After that point,
you tend to get serious side eects which arent worth the extra level youre gaining.

Rob Williams - ProSoundFormula.com, All Rights Reserved 47

 Step #7: Reference it
The final step to mastering your music is to
reference it. Referencing is about taking your track
out into the real world and hearing how it sounds on
a variety of playback systems.
 How to Master a Song - Simple 7 Step Mastering Formula

If you want to make sure that your songs sound great no matter where theyre played,
and what theyre played on, referencing is the key.

It doesnt matter whether youre just starting out, or youre a seasoned pro with years
of experience under your belt, referencing is essential to making sure that our masters
sound great out in the real world not just our home studios.

Referencing is really just a fancy word for go listen and compare your masters on a
bunch of stu.

A good analogy for this can be found in web design. Lets say youre a web designer
Youre working on your big 27-inch thunderbolt display, designing the most beautiful
looking web page the world has ever seen. You sit back and stare it in wonder, thinking
look at how clever and talented I am to design such a marvel.

The problem is, most people are NOT going to be looking at your website on a 27-inch
thunderbolt display!

They may be on their iPad, a laptop, their Samsung Galaxy, a 17inch monitor, an old
iPhone 3, a Nokia 3310 Ok, hopefully not the 3310, but it literally could be anything

The point is, every device, every platform, every browser, all look and behave slightly
dierently. As you can imagine, this can be a challenge (as I discovered putting together
the site youre on now!). The only way to truly test this out is to check the site on as many
dierent platforms and devices as possible and make adjustments and compromises.

REFERENCING IS REALLY JUST A FANCY WORD FOR GO

LISTEN AND COMPARE YOUR MASTERS ON A BUNCH OF
STUFF

Rob Williams - ProSoundFormula.com, All Rights Reserved 49

 How to Master a Song - Simple 7 Step Mastering Formula

Just as a web designer must make sure that their website looks great on most devices, we must make sure that our
music sounds great on most playback systems.

The same is true for your music. Just because your master sounds great in your home
studio or on your headphones, doesnt mean itll be the same in a car, on a large HiFi, or
on a crappy little boombox. You are the only person who is ever going to listen to your
music on your exact system, everyone else is using something dierent.

One advantage the big mastering houses have over the little guy is convenient access
to a whole bunch of dierent playback systems in one place.

Often theyll have entire rooms lled with a variety of dierent speakers, sound
systems, and reference monitors, so they can instantly listen back and compare the
sound on many dierent sources. The reason this is important is because ultimately
were trying to make sure that our masters sound great no matter where theyre played
or what theyre played back on.

Although you may not have an entire room of your house dedicated to referencing
you masters, we can do this the old school way.

Rob Williams - ProSoundFormula.com, All Rights Reserved 50

 How to Master a Song - Simple 7 Step Mastering Formula

Theres no secret to this step, you simply want to burn your master to a CD, or put it on
some kind of player, and go and listen to it on as many dierent systems you can get
your hands on. Everything from small portable stereos, the car, a laptop, headphones, a
PA, HiFi with a subwoofer, PC speakers, iPod, etc.

Make sure to compare it to the two or three reference tracks you used for comparison
in your mastering session. Because all systems sound dierent, you want to get an idea
of what some professionally mastered commercial tracks sound like on them before
judging your own.

Rob Williams - ProSoundFormula.com, All Rights Reserved 51

 How to Master a Song - Simple 7 Step Mastering Formula

Look for patterns

What were looking for are patterns consistent dierences or problems with the audio.

For example, if you notice that your master sounds harsh on four out of ve of the
playback systems you test, chances are, its got too much energy somewhere in the 2kHz
8kHz range.

On the other hand, if you nd that the low-end sounds good on most systems except
for your laptop, chances are, this is probably just because the laptop cant reproduce
much bass!

The point is, dont jump to conclusions based on one playback system. Use your
reference tracks to get an idea of what a commercial master should sound like on a
particular system, and then listen to how your masters compare to that.

Keep in mind that you can only do so much in the mastering phase and that if the
bass wasnt mixed loud enough, or at the right frequencies, you may not be able to x it
with one overall EQ. As I mentioned earlier, its often better to go back and x issues like
this in the mix session.

This is the great part about learning to master it teaches you so much about what
you need to be aiming for in the recording and mixing stages.

Mastering is the art of compromise. Its about the overall song and making it the best
it can be, not about making an individual instrument sound great at the expense of
everything else. Every decision made while mastering a song should be about whats best
for that song as a whole.

EVERY DECISION MADE WHILE MASTERING A SONG

SHOULD BE ABOUT WHATS BEST FOR THAT SONG AS A
WHOLE.

Rob Williams - ProSoundFormula.com, All Rights Reserved 52

 How to Master a Song - Simple 7 Step Mastering Formula

Three playback systems that make mastering easier

While going out and listening to your masters on a bunch of dierent systems is
important, it can also be a bit of a hassle especially when you have to keep on coming
back and making changes.

I like to have at least three dierent playback systems / speakers / devices right in my
studio and ready to go, so that I can quickly switch between them. If this sounds
complicated, its not! This is what I have set up at the moment

Firstly, I have my studio monitors. At the moment, Im using some relatively inexpensive
(as monitors go) Yamaha HS80s. Theyre not the best in the world, but they do a great job
and Im happy with them. You may be able to record, or even mix, without proper
reference monitors. But when it comes to mastering, youre going to nd it extremely
dicult to hear whats really going on unless you have a set of decent monitors.

Rob Williams - ProSoundFormula.com, All Rights Reserved 53

 How to Master a Song - Simple 7 Step Mastering Formula

Mastering without studio monitors is kind of like trying to paint in the dark. If you cant
hear whats really going on with the sound, its very dicult to make accurate
judgements.

You dont need the best or most expensive monitors, you just need some basic studio
monitors that arent going to hype the sound like most consumer HiFi speakers and
headphones do.

Check out the HS80s on Amazon: Yamaha HS8 Studio Monitor, Black

(Tip: Often they stock a bundle option which gets you a set of monitors, speaker stands,
and cables for no extra cost.)

Secondly, I always have some

headphones on hand. Im actually
using some real el cheapos these
Sennheiser HD 201s.

You dont need anything fancy, but

you do need some headphones to
be able to pick up the ner details
and stereo balance which is more
dicult to hear on monitors. I also
like to keep my Apple EarPods
around as another reference.

Check out the Sennheiser headphones on Amazon: Sennheiser HD 201 Lightweight Over
Ear Headphones

Heres the newer version of those headphones (the 202s) which only cost slightly more:
Sennheiser HD 202 II Professional Headphones

Rob Williams - ProSoundFormula.com, All Rights Reserved 54

 How to Master a Song - Simple 7 Step Mastering Formula

Finally, I have a Bluetooth speaker which Ive linked up to some extra outputs on my
audio interface. Ive used all kinds of things over the years, but the concept is the same
have something to represent the small boombox type systems out there.

The one Im using at the moment is this Creative Audio Bluetooth speaker pictured
above. It just gives you a good general representation of the average system people are
listening on these days. Its really aordable and does a good job. It also has a mini-jack
input so you can plug straight into it from your sound card if you like.

If you want to check it out on Amazon, here it is: Creative D80 Wireless Bluetooth
Speaker

Rob Williams - ProSoundFormula.com, All Rights Reserved 55

Summary Checklist
 How to Master a Song - Simple 7 Step Mastering Formula

1. Prepare It
Goal: To get everything set up and ready for mastering.

Bounce down (export) your mix session to a stereo, uncompressed, le.

Use .wav or .ai

Use minimum of 24 bit 44.1kHz. 24 bit 96kHz is ideal.

Create a new session for mastering and import your nal mix.

Make sure the mastering session you create matches the sample rate and bit
depth of your exported mix. e.g. 96kHz, 24 bit

Import 2 3 commercial reference tracks into your mastering session so that you
can compare your track directly to them.

2. Fix It
Goal: To x any problems with the overall sound.

Compare your track to the commercial references and listen for any problems
anything that sounds strange or bad.

Use a spectrum analyzer to look for problems with the frequency spectrum this
could be too much, or too little, energy in a certain range.

Common problems include; harshness, thin & brittle sound, vocal esses too loud,
boomy bass, muddy low end, stereo image too narrow or wide, inconsistent
frequencies, etc.

Rob Williams - ProSoundFormula.com, All Rights Reserved 57

 How to Master a Song - Simple 7 Step Mastering Formula

3. Enhance It
Goal: To improve the overall sound of the nal mix in some way.

Experiment with things like EQ, stereo wideners, harmonic exciters, and analog
emulation plugins, to hear whether they improve the overall sound.

Could the track use some thickening up? Try some tape or valve emulation
plugin, or a bass enhancer./li>

Would it sound better with a stereo widener?

How about a little bit of EQ on the top end?

4. Compress It
Goal: To reduce the dynamic range of the overall track in order to add energy and
make it louder.

Try a compressor to hear whether it improves the overall sound, if not, remove it
and move on.

Use a low ratio to avoid compressing too much Start with a ratio around 1.5:1
2:1

Aim for around 2dBs of gain reduction, no more than 4dB!

Multi-band compressors allow you to compress the dierent frequency ranges

separately and thus give you more control they can be very powerful but best
avoided if youre unsure what youre doing yet!

Rob Williams - ProSoundFormula.com, All Rights Reserved 58

 How to Master a Song - Simple 7 Step Mastering Formula

5. Clip It
Goal: To soft-clip the audio peaks of a track in order to achieve maximum loudness
with minimal negative side eects.

If youre going for loud, soft clipping is your friend.

Generally this is for more aggressive tracks, if its a mellow song or something
more natural, stay away!

If youre not rich (yet), consider trying a plugin such as the T-Racks Soft Clipper to
get a similar eect to what the pros use.

6. Limit It
Goal: To increase the overall level of the track as much as possible without clipping
or losing quality.

If you do nothing else, a brick-wall limiter is a great way to bring your track up to
a good level without digital clipping.

A limiter is always the LAST step in the chain, dont put anything after the limiter.

Limit to -0.1 (Some people say -0.3 is better, personally I dont think it makes any
dierence but thats up to you to decide).

7. Reference It
Goal: To listen and compare your master on a variety of dierent playback systems
to get a better idea of whats working or not, and then make adjustments if
necessary.

Listen on as many dierent systems as possible in the car, on a boombox,

bluetooth speaker, large HIFI, headphones, PA system, etc.

Compare to your reference tracks and listen out for consistent dierences.

Make adjustments and repeat the process as many times as necessary.

Rob Williams - ProSoundFormula.com, All Rights Reserved 59

 More resources
Im impressed, youre one of the very few who downloaded this book and
made it all the way to the end nice! Heres a couple of resources to help
you take the next steps to getting awesome sounding masters

Download the 7 Step Mastering Formula Infographic

Get a quick overview and checklist to guide you through the 7 step formula as youre
mastering your songs. Click below to download it now its on me :)

http://prosoundformula.com/download/how-to-master-a-song-infographic
 Mastering Mini-Course
Join me for my Mastering Mini-Course where I'll be sharing with you some of my best
tips, tricks, and insights, into producing great sounding masters from home. Did I
mention it's totally free? :) Click below to sign up:

http://prosoundformula.com/mastering-mini-course/
 How to Master a Song - Simple 7 Step Mastering Formula

The Ultimate Mastering Formula

If you're serious about producing great sounding music, and you want to learn to
master your tracks properly, I've got a great in-depth mastering training which I really
think will help you. From setting up your mastering session to laying out your nal
album, everything you need to know to produce commercial quality masters is in
here. Click below to nd out more.

http://prosoundformula.com/products/the-ultimate-mastering-formula/

Rob Williams - ProSoundFormula.com, All Rights Reserved 62