Mixing and Mastering in Kansas City

Our online mixing and mastering services guarantee the best quality at a great price.

When you compose and record a song, you might think that your job is done and your song is ready for the world to hear it. However, no matter how well you have done, your music is still far from what you and the consumers would consider as ideal; a memorable piece with great quality that stands out among the others and makes your brand even more glamorous and successful.

What Is the Difference Between Mixing and Mastering?

We usually hear the words ‘mixing and mastering’ together, and this has led to a misconception that they are one. As a matter of fact, they are two different processes that are done separately after a piece of music or an album is recorded. First is mixing during which different recordings for a song are combined and adjusted to make a single stereo file. Then, this single track (or the whole album) goes through a mastering process to make it more cohesive and suitable for playback.

Let’s learn more about each, before we tell you about how to order this 2-in-1 service. You may also call us for free consultation.

What Is Music Mixing?

When you want to produce a professional song with refined quality, every instrument is played and recorded separately. As a result, you end up having different recordings for one song. What you need to do is to mix all these separated elements, called stems, into a one united cohered and balanced track. This is what we mean by music mixing, and it is not as simple as it sounds. Sound engineers use different kinds of tools to make a piece in which all parts fit together and sound natural.

Some of the essential mixing tools include:

Level fader:

Level fader is a fundamental tool for every genre. Basically, it is used to balance the volume of each element. In other words, mixing engineers use it to increase or decrease the loudness of a particular sound in the mix.

Panoramic potentiometers:

Panoramic potentiometers are mostly known as Pan Pots. They are used to make a kind of position for each instrument in the mix. That is how much of a sound you hear from the left channel and how much from the right one. That is why, if you close your eyes and listen to the song, you can picture different positions of any instrument, exactly like a band on stage.

Equalizers:

EQ or equalizers are necessary if you want to keep some of the essential frequencies and remove the others to make each sound clearly heard by the consumer. As Pan Pots create an illusion of width, EQ can give your soundtrack some depth and distance.

Compressors:

Compressing a song mainly includes reducing its dynamic range (the distance between the loudest peaks and the quietest parts), among other things. This means the louder peaks become quieter, and the quieter parts become louder. Compression enables mixing engineers to create weight and movement in a song.

Reverbs:

Reverbs create distance and depth in a soundtrack, and as a result, we will have a so-called 3D song. In order to make this illusion, some sounds are pushed further away from the listener. These elements that are heard from the back, give us the illusion of depth and distance.
After mixing is done, with the help of these tools and other ones, you will have a balanced song which is cohesive and harmonic. A song whose elements are natural, not forced, with the ability to awaken the consumers’ emotion.

To learn even more about the mixing process, check out our online music mixing service page.

What Is Music Mastering?

The second part of our online music mixing and mastering service is mastering the song. Now that you are done with mixing and you have your single harmonic and cohered soundtrack, it is time for the last polish. To make sure there is not any mistake in the final track, and guarantee the quality of playback in every device and format and on any platform, mastering engineers do whatever they can to make the best features of your song clearly heard by the consumers. This is the final step in music production which, if skillfully done, can make all your efforts pay off. The master recording is achieved after some adjustments. There are some essential factors for mastering a piece of music.

Essential factors for mastering a piece of music

Some of the essential factors for mastering a piece of music are:

• Monitors
• Professional DAW/Wave Editor and Mastering Suit
• Limiter

Monitors:

Mastering engineers judge the quality of the song they are mastering by listening to it carefully. That is why they need the best monitoring equipment. Professional and standard speakers for sound engineering ensure that the mastering process is not done based on some faulty substandard devices, but based on what the song actually sounds like.

Professional DAW/Wave Editor and Mastering Suit:

In order to create the most specialized master recording, you need to use proper mastering tools, both physical (plugs of DAW) and software. These tools help you make advanced sound analyses (because your ears might not be enough for a top-notch mastering), create great stereo effects, amazing compressions, and more.

Limiter:

The most vital step in mastering might be applying the limiter. The main job of a limiter is to make the song louder and clearer. It actually increases both the actual volume and the perceived one. As a result, the song will be more energetic and exciting.

See our online music mastering service page to get more familiar with the process.

Why Do You Need Engineers for Mixing and Mastering?

Being a musician is not an easy job nowadays, due to the high number of rivals. Thanks to the streaming platforms on the Internet these days, the competition has never been this tough. You need to produce an absolutely perfect piece of music in order to be able to capture people’s heart and pick their interest. There is no place for lower quality products. Even if you have a catchy song, if it is not skillfully mixed and mastered, it will lack the required qualities to be ranked as professional.

Mixing and mastering are the steps that make your music shine. However, these processes must be done by highly qualified mixing and mastering engineers and advanced equipment. You have gone through a lot of difficulties to compose and record your song; these last crucial steps must be done by an engineer to make your efforts count. Although it will cost you to hire engineers to do the job, they guarantee the best outcome.

What Distinguishes professional Mix and Master Engineers from Amateurs?

There are some websites or videos that encourage you and try to teach you to mix and master your own song. This might be enough for amateurs. However, there is no way you can stand against your competitors by taking mixing and mastering lightly, if you are in a serious business. So, pay a little money to make your efforts pay off. Four main benefits of hiring actual mixing and mastering engineers are the following, among other things.

• They have experience.
• They have the right equipment.
• They have the right taste.
• They are objective.

Our mixing and mastering experts know tricks and techniques that only a few know of.