After more than 20 weeks, the time has finally come for the last installment in our series dedicated to mastering at home. Today we won't be making any miraculous revelations. Instead, we'll give you one final piece of advice, "for the road."
A final word
All along this series, we have tried our best to present, in the most comprehensible way, the basic principles that underpin the delicate art of mastering. However, except for a couple of exceptions, like dithering, for example, all of these “rules” ought to be taken merely as suggestions. It’s up to you to experiment! And, above all, practice, practice, practice! After all, your main advantage in relation to a professional mastering studio is time. Nobody will be yelling at you if you haven’t finished by the end of the day, so make the most of it!
To conclude, we would like to thank you for having followed us throughout this adventure and we sincerely hope that these articles have been useful to you in one way or another.
All of it
For your convenience, here are links to the entire series.
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Part 1 – An Introduction to DIY Mastering
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Part 2 – Prepare for your Mastering Session
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Part 3 – Methodology for DIY Mastering
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Part 6 – How to use Compression in Mastering
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Part 7 – Multi-band Compression in Mastering
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Part 9 – Using Stereo Enhancers in Mastering
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Part 10 – Using Reverb when Mastering
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Part 11 – Mid-Side in Mastering
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Part 12 – Automation in Mastering
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Part 13 – Using a Limiter in Mastering
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Part 14 – The use of Dithering in Mastering
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Part 15 – Using Headphones in Mastering
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Part 16 – Using the Spectrum Analyzer in Mastering
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Part 17 – The Stereo Image in Mastering
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Part 18 – Levels in Mastering
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Part 19 – Audio Norms in Mastering
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Part 20 – The Oscilloscope in Mastering
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Part 21 – Rendering a Master
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Part 22 – Volume in Mastering