Steve DB`s Q&A production workshop

[Siege]

Obviously,mastering should be left to the pros,but if your gonna try yourself, is it possible to get better results mastering your track before its rendered down to a single stereo file?

[koda]

Obviously,mastering should be left to the pros,but if your gonna try yourself, is it possible to get better results mastering your track before its rendered down to a single stereo file?

ideally your mix down should be as close to mastered as possible, ive seen people who throw dynamic effects over the master bus to squeeze it together because they cant get that tight feel to it, my technique is eq and compression (amoungst other things) ONLY where its needed.
but otherwise i think i would get carried away mastering my own stuff, best left to someone else i think

[Siege]

I concentrate on getting the mixdown sounding the best i can before even thinking about mastering.
Therefore when it does come to the mastering stage, im not relying on this to get the sound i want...i have it sounding how i want before master. Like i said il leave mastering to the pros but do have a dabble myself for pre-masters,trks i post up in here and that. Usually warm it up a little...eq cut...multiband comp...maximise..
What i want to know though is,ive heard you can get better,louder results if you master the mix before you render the whole thing down and then master.Is this true???

[loopdon]

i think the terminology 'mastering' is often misused. what a lot of people mean is pre-mastering...