Why Do Recording Artists Need Mixing and Mastering Services?

Posted by StevenHWicker on June 5th, 2019

Music is food for the soul. As pleasing as it is to listen to music, a lot of work goes in making it and publishing it. Music is powerful. It can motivate people for a purpose or cause or can get that jamming feeling inside you. Hence,  it should be a must that, in its production, the lyrics are understood clearly, if it's about sending a message or the tune should be moving when the beat comes in any music of Electric Dance Music or simply dubstep. 
A lot of technicality goes in making music. Mastering and Mixing are the main elements of making music pleasing to hear. They help in enhancing the effect of the music and provides after effects that give music the modernism we hear today.
The technological advancements lead us to the mixing services and mastering services that are accessible from our home, making it easier for anyone to enhance their music and polish the end product of their created song.
Song mixing joins different parts of different audios to portray it as a singular audio clip while Song mastering gives the final touch to a mixed song to produce a final perfect product.
Both of these techniques require specialists of their respective fields to perform Mixing and Mastering and are a necessity for modern songs to sound pleasing and attract song enthusiasts.

 
What is Audio Mixing?

Audio Mixing is based on mixing several audio clips to produce a stereo, mono, or surround sound by adjusting the equalizers and compressions. Mixing is generally about adding all the audio files of the song and blending them together. It is like constructing a building; all bricks must be placed correctly, so as to form the correct shape, you cannot randomly place blocks and expect the building to stand straight or have a pleasing shape. Similarly, Audio Mixing is combining multiple parts in their correct places to create a tone pleasant to hear.
Song mixing is the same process, but instead of only a tune or audio, a proper sung song is mixed to create a polished final product.
Audio Mixing is performed in a studio with a mixing console, but it can also be done on a smaller scale because of the online music mixing services available.
Audio Mixing is a very broadly used method and is not taken as a secondary or optional process during song production; experts of audio Mixing exist they are known as mixing engineers.
Song Mixing gives a splash of professionalism in the song and balances the clarity by fixing the levels of depth, frequency, level of sound, and stereo image. Mixing the audio in a high and low level of sound helps in creating a 3D effect of the music, which gives the concert experience from the ease of your headphones.


Steps for audio Mixing:

Audio Mixing
is not as simple as it sounds. A lot of thought has to be put into mixing services, but now there is ease of software present and online mixing services that give you the power of combining without any expertise.
For a more comprehensive audio mixing, there is always a need for a human touch. All the parts that need to mixed are recorded, and now, the work of the mixing engineer begins. Their work starts by the organization of the audio tracks into different busses and groups. The frequency and intensity of volume of all the tracks are made uniform to ensure there is no noise or any song that might irritate the hearer.
The engineer then listens to each recording track and equalizes it to ensure no tracks are peaking. The mixing engineer listens carefully to the instruments and adjusts the sound according to the equalizer and may eliminate any unnecessary disturbing frequencies. The engineer also makes sure everything is consistent by focusing on the high and low keynotes of the instruments and frequencies to make sure all the instruments playing in the audio track can be distinguished with focused hearing. The main idea of using an equalizer is that all tracks have their separate frequencies and must be equalized for the song to feel like one. Applying filters, panning for clarity of song lyrics, and manipulating the effects throughout the length of the song with automated software help to control the emotion of the song.
A lot of variants are checked and applied to check the genre and emotion to which the song is to be directed. Engineers spend hours and sometimes days tweaking and switching between headphones and the studio monitors to get the best result as there is no tolerance for any kind of mistake.
After the audio has been successfully mixed, the work of the audio mastering engineer begins.

What is Audio Mastering?

Audio Mastering
is polishing a finished product; it is the process done post-production of the song.
Mastered songs sound much better than the original song, just like polishing makes the product shine more than it is shining, Audio Mastering makes the song more refined and enhances the quality of sound making the lyrics understandable and the audio to become soothing as opposed to being loud irritating noise.
Mastering engineers also exist who are experts in audio mastering and mastering services.
It is a very complex process which requires to go through many mastering services and each with very close focus or else the whole Mastering will be gone to waste. The first phase involves the restoration of the audio to remove any background hisses or loudness, Amplifying the wording and removing stuff like hissing or a click made while the audio was recorded. Next phase is enhancing the stereo audio, balancing it left to right and making sure to focus even the smallest beat in the song to give it full coverage. This process enhances the, and the song lyrics and music are provided the primary spotlights of focus. The last step is equalizing the audio so that there are no out of balance frequency; the equalizer must be balanced to make the audio in proportion to the music and the lyrics. Equalizing the audio makes sure it is balanced, and the sound is in a rhythm of equal frequencies.

Mastering audio must be done very carefully, and any disproportionate setting can remove the aesthetic factor of the music, and instead of enhancing the appeal of the sound, it becomes displeasing noise.

Steps for Audio Mastering:

The mixed audio is received to the mastering engineer; This is a significant difference between Mastering and Mixing of audios, i.e., Audio Mastering is the applying of final touches to a completed product. Slight adjustments are made to the mixed song but nothing major as to not alter any part of the mixed audio. The EQ, stereo enhancement, and limiting and compression are the first aspects to be altered. The main goal is to get highly enhanced, clear, and a professional song to be delivered outputting through headphones or speakers regardless. The bass is checked, and flow levels are monitored if they are equal or aesthetic based on the beat while not removing focus from the high and low notes of the instruments.
It is made sure that each instrument can be distinguished while listening to the music.

Conclusion:

Making music is not child’s play and requires a lot of work and from people experts in the field of Mixing and Mastering. These two methods of enhancing a song are of utmost importance to generate the full potential of the effect a song has on a listener. Mixing and Mastering the audio is of almost equal if not more important than singing or playing instruments of a song. This is because all the modern songs utilize these techniques of enhancing their songs post-production.
Although, Mastering and mixing audiois a work done by professional and expert engineers of their respective fields, but it can also be done at the ease of your home.
Online music mixing service exists which help you in audio Mixing just like a professional; You can cut and mix different parts of the audio, check its enhancement, frequency, and equalize it with online software. It is not straightforward and linear, but it can be learned due to the convenience provided by mixing services online.
Similarly, Online music mastering services are also present to add final touchups to a finished products, and you have the ability to master audio just like a professional mastering engineer in a studio. Best mastering services are present online to help you in adding touchups to a finished song post-production. These services help you in mixing and mastering your audios; you can tweak with the pitch, frequency and equalizer of the audio to make it to your liking as these techniques are highly needed for any recording artist either professional or a rookie in the field.

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StevenHWicker

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StevenHWicker
Joined: December 8th, 2018
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