mastering

[dobro]

I read an article in EQ that contained interviews with six mastering engineers. This is ignorance talking here, of course, but to me mastering sounds like another set of ears (experienced ears) taking somebody's mix and making it sound better using compression and EQ basically.

Which means, if I'm right, that there are loads of people on this page who could 'master' anything I do, because they've been doing this way longer, and have way more experience with EQ and compression. It wouldn't be pro level mastering, but then neither's the recording I do, so fair's fair.

In a nutshell - another, experienced, set of ears.

 

[Buck62]

For the most part, you got it right.
But, a good sound engineer also understands that certain frequencies cancel eachother out.
In other words, you have a bass track... and then you have an acoustic guitar track that has a lot of bottom end. More often than not, these two tracks will make for a muddy sound (or hum) which makes it tough for the person doing the mastering work.
Another thing to consider is noise.
When you have even the tiniest bit of noise on your recordings, it seems to really become noticeable during the mastering process. Granted, it can be brought down or mostly removed... but the overall sound quality usually suffers because of it. The guitars might not sound as punchy, or you'll lose some reverb.
The mastering guy is not a magician. If you bring him a "not so perfect" recording, you have to realize that it is what it is... a "not so perfect" recording. Don't expect miracles.
With noise and imperfections.. "everyone comes to the party" during the mastering phase.
This is not to discourage anyone from mastering, though. For the most part, mastering will truly help just about any recording, and will make a song(s) more "radio friendly". Especially if it's a good recording in the first place.
I strongly suggest that if you are going to spend the money for mastering, you should go to a local studio where you can observe the process and ask questions while your material is being mastered. It's a great learning experience, and you'll end up getting exactly what you want out of your music.
The amount of tweaking depends on how much time and money you want to spend for each song. A song by Madonna, the Rolling Stones, or any other big name act usually has about 8 to 12 hours of mastering work per song. That's why they sound so good.
My cd took 8 hours for 10 songs. That's about average for a first-time recording. But I'm very pleased with the results.