Mixing is the balance between the parts of one song. Mastering is the final pass on the finished mix so it holds up next to every other record. They are two different jobs, done at two different scales, and doing one does not do the other.
That is the whole answer. Here is why the distinction costs people money when they get it wrong.
What mixing actually does
Mixing works inside the song. You have twenty tracks — vocals, doubles, ad-libs, drums, bass, keys, guitars — and none of them yet know about each other. Mixing is what makes them into one thing.
The work is:
- Balance. How loud each element sits against the others. This is most of it, and it is the part people underestimate.
- EQ. Carving space so the bass and the kick are not fighting for the same frequencies, and the vocal has a lane of its own.
- Compression. Controlling dynamics so a quiet word does not disappear and a loud one does not stab.
- Saturation and effects. Reverb, delay, colour — depth and place.
- Automation. Riding the details, line by line, so the song moves instead of sitting still.
A mix is a set of hundreds of small decisions about one song. It is the stage where a record either becomes a record or stays a demo.
What mastering actually does
Mastering works on the finished mix — one stereo file, not twenty tracks — and it is aiming at a completely different target: how your song behaves out in the world.
- Level. So it does not land noticeably quieter than the track before it in a playlist.
- Tone. Final broad-strokes balance, so it does not sound dull on a laptop or harsh in a car.
- Stereo image. Width and mono compatibility — a lot of listening still happens on a single phone speaker.
- Translation. The whole point: it should hold together on earbuds, in a car, on a club system and on a kitchen radio.
- Consistency across a release. On an EP or album, mastering is what stops track three from feeling like it came from a different project.
Mastering cannot fix a mix. If the vocal is buried, mastering will make a louder version of a song with a buried vocal. This is the single most expensive misunderstanding in independent music.
Side by side
| Mixing | Mastering | |
|---|---|---|
| Works on | Every individual track | One finished stereo file |
| Scale | Inside the song | The song against other songs |
| Fixes | Balance, tone, dynamics, space | Level, final tone, width, consistency |
| Can it save a bad recording | Sometimes, partly | No |
| Can it save a bad mix | n/a | No |
| Typical order | First | Last |
Do you need mastering if the mix already sounds good?
Yes, and the reason is comparison, not quality.
Your mix sounds good in isolation, on the speakers you mixed it on. The moment it goes into a playlist, it is being judged against records that went through a mastering stage — and it will read as quieter, narrower and slightly duller than the thing that plays after it. Listeners do not diagnose that. They just skip.
Streaming platforms normalise loudness, which people often take to mean mastering is obsolete. It is not. Normalisation adjusts level; it does nothing about tone, dynamics, stereo width or how your record sits against the one that follows it.
Can the same person do both?
Yes, and here they usually do. The old argument for separating them was fresh ears — a mastering engineer who has not heard the song two hundred times catches what the mixer has gone deaf to.
That is a real effect and worth respecting. In practice it is handled by time and by reference: the master gets checked on KRK Rokit 7 and Kali LP-8 monitors and again on headphones, against a reference track you chose, on a different day from the mix. If a record genuinely needs an outside set of ears, we will tell you that rather than quietly take the work.
What it costs here
Mixing and mastering are billed at the same hourly studio rate as everything else — $50–$65/hr depending on how many hours you book. Send the material first and you will get an estimate of the hours and the cost before any work starts.
Charging by the hour instead of a flat per-track fee is the fairer way round: a sparse song that mixes quickly genuinely costs you less, instead of being averaged up into one flat price built around the difficult songs.
Turnaround is typically 3–5 business days from the point the files land. Every hour you book includes up to 10 minutes of additional mixing or editing afterwards — exporting stems counts against that too. Revisions happen after the session rather than during it.
You do not have to have recorded here. Most of what gets mixed in this room was tracked somewhere else, or at home.
How to send stems so the mix goes faster
- Consolidate from bar one. Every file starts at the same point, so they line up when they are dropped in.
- One file per element. Not one file for "drums" — kick, snare, hats, separately, if you have them.
- Leave the master bus off unless you want that processing kept. Say which.
- Name them plainly.
lead-vocal, notaudio_07_FINAL_v3. - Send a reference track. One song that sounds like where you want to end up. It replaces about an hour of guessing, and it is the single most useful thing you can attach.
WAV or AIFF at the session sample rate. An MP3 is fine as a reference, not as source material. If your session is a mess, send it anyway and say so — that is a normal starting point, not a problem.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between mixing and mastering? Mixing is the balance between the parts of one song — levels, EQ, compression, effects and automation across every track. Mastering is the final pass on the finished stereo mix: level, tone and stereo image, so the song sits properly next to other records and across the rest of your release.
Do I need mastering if my mix already sounds good? Yes. A good mix sounds good in isolation; mastering is what makes it hold up in comparison. Without it your track will read as quieter, narrower and duller than whatever plays after it in a playlist. Streaming loudness normalisation does not replace this.
Can mastering fix a bad mix? No. Mastering works on one stereo file and cannot reach inside it. If the vocal is buried, mastering produces a louder song with a buried vocal. Fix it at the mix stage, which is why we listen before quoting.
Can the same engineer mix and master my song? Yes, and it is common. The value of a separate mastering engineer is fresh ears, which we handle with time, a reference track and a check on both monitors and headphones. If a record genuinely needs outside ears, we will say so.
How much does mixing and mastering cost? Both are billed at the hourly studio rate, $50–$65/hr depending on hours booked, with an estimate of the hours given before any work begins. Billing hourly rather than flat per-track means a song that mixes quickly costs you less.
Can you mix a song I recorded at home? Yes — that is most of this work. Send the stems and we will tell you honestly whether the source recording will hold up before you pay for anything.