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Do you really need to master your DJ mixes?

So you just made a killer new DJ mix and at some point you’ve probably asked yourself these questions when considering getting it mastered: Why should I spend the extra money to master my DJ mix? All of the tracks in the mix have already been mastered, so what’s the point?

Below we go over a few points as to some of the benefits to getting your DJ mix mastered, especially if you want your mix to sonically stand out above the other 99% of other DJ mixes that don’t get mastered.

Audio degradation: Whenever audio passes through any sort of hardware or software it almost always changes the quality of it to some extent– rarely for the better, mostly for the worse – especially if it’s going through your laptop’s on-board sound card or your handheld recorder. Want to test this theory? Listen to a track in your recorded mix, and then compare it sonically to the original mastered file of that same track. Notice a difference?

Each track’s levels are not the same: While most, if not all, of the tracks in your mix are already individually mastered, they aren’t necessarily all at consistent levels. Every mastering engineer has different methods, gear, tastes, principles, and…. ears – thus giving a wide variety of ways to polish up those tracks. Some tracks might be brighter, louder, quieter, duller, less/more dynamic, etc. etc. than others. Even before the mastering process, each song’s mixdowns are also drastically different as well, which makes the mastering approach vary for every song. Don’t believe any of this? Listen through the Beatport Top 100 (or your own music list) and just pay attention to the levels of each track.

Dynamic effects and level adjustments can really help: Mastering won’t be able to fix or repair a mix that is completely off beat. But it can totally save a mix that doesn’t sound great due to levels not matching up. Or if your beat matching or EQing gets a little rough in some areas, some dynamic effects can really smooth that out to where it is much less noticeable.

Add some polish and depth: Here is a car analogy: Anytime you build something up from separate parts to make a whole new invention – no matter how clean and polished those individual parts were your new invention still needs to be re-cleaned, calibrated, and tested as a whole. Well same goes for your new mix. You’ve taken individual parts to create something new. It is your new creation; a new song really. The sum of many separate parts combined, which now needs to be re-polished and enhanced to make it sound like one, seamless, unified entity.

Your sound is your brand: You did the hard part. You compiled, programmed, and mixed your set all together. Now you want it to stand above the rest. Mastering will add that last 10% of technical precision, enhancement, and sound quality which only can be achieved in a mastering studio. Mastering takes something good and makes it excellent. Professional-grade quality helping to maximize your brand to its fullest potential.

Ask yourself again: What do I want people to remember AND expect from my sound?

www.intellectualmastering.com
“i-M Your Music”

**50% off DJ Mix Masters all January 2016**