Mistakes When Hiring A Mastering Engineer

In this video Freddie from Distinct Mastering show’s you how to avoid mistakes when hiring a mastering engineer and gives seven tips to help you avoid audio mastering scams. Mastering is not a one size fits all approach, every song or album must be given the proper care and attention to detail that it deserves.

#TimeStamps

0:00 Start
00:41 Don’t Hire A Mix Engineer
00:54 Listen To Their Work
01:17 Get Things Fixed In the Mix
01:31 Listen In Multiple Sources
01:57 Do Not Master MP3s
02:13 Turn Off Processing
02:26 Don’t Hire Off Looks
02:46 Outro

#StepByStep

1. Don’t Hire A Mix Engineer – Mixing and mastering are two completely different things.

2. Listen To Their Work – Be sure the mastering engineer showcases before and after samples of their work. You can listen to some before and after samples HERE.

3. Get Things Fixed In the Mix – Always make sure the mastering engineer pushes back and gets things fixed in the mix if there is a problem. It’s always best to push back and get things fixed in the mix.

4. Listen In Multiple Sources – Listen to your mix in multiple sources before sending to mastering and make sure you love your mix in all of the sources.

5. Do Not Master MP3s – Don’t ever hire anyone willing to master MP3’s. MP3’s should NEVER be mastered.

6. Turn Off Processing – Make sure to turn off all the processing on your master buss.

7. Don’t Hire Off Looks – Make sure you don’t hire a mastering engineer just because they have a big fancy studio or lots of gear.

Thanks for watching this video and hopefully it helps you avoid mistakes when hiring a mastering engineer. Make sure to subscribe on YouTube HERE for weekly tips and tricks.