The last set of ears before the whole world hears it
Mastering is not a volume knob. It is the last honest listen your record gets before it becomes permanent.
What mastering can and cannot do
It can settle the tone, control the dynamics, match the level to everything else in a playlist, and make one song sit next to the next one on an EP without a jump. It can catch the clipped snare you stopped hearing after the fortieth pass.
It cannot rebalance a vocal that is buried. It cannot separate a kick and an 808 that were printed on top of each other. Anyone who tells you the master will fix a mix problem is selling you a second service to cover the first one.
Loudness, and the part nobody explains
Streaming platforms turn everything down to a target level anyway. Pushing a master to be the loudest file on earth just means the platform lowers it and you lose the transients you traded away. What survives that process is punch, not level.
So the goal is a master that stays open when it gets turned down and stays clean when someone plays it on a phone speaker at full volume. Those are two different tests and both get run before anything is delivered.
Delivery and formats
You get a streaming master, an instrumental master, a clean edit if you need one, and higher resolution files if a distributor or sync placement asks. Nothing is upsold as a separate add on.
If you are releasing an EP or an album, the songs get sequenced and level matched as a set. That is included when it is more than three songs, because a record that jumps in volume between tracks sounds unfinished no matter how good each song is.
Questions about mastering
Can you master something you did not mix?
Yes. Most masters here are for mixes done elsewhere, and you will get a note if there is a problem the master cannot solve.
What should I leave off my mix bus?
Limiting. Leave a few dB of headroom and keep the peaks under the ceiling. Light bus compression is fine if it is part of the sound.
How loud will it be?
Loud enough to sit next to commercial records in your genre without sounding squashed. That is a range, not a single number, and it depends on the mix.
Do you master for vinyl?
Yes, as a separate file with different constraints. Say so up front so the mix can be checked for out of phase low end before cutting.
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