Free Online Mastering – Everything You Need To Know & More
If you’re a musician, artist or performer you’ll already be aware of the importance of music mastering. Now we’re here to make mastering more widely available with our free online mastering tool!
If you want to compete in the saturated market that is the music industry, you need to ensure your material is up to scratch and of the highest quality. We can’t stress enough how essential it is to get your music mastered, but unfortunately, music mastering can be a costly and time-consuming task.
In this piece, we’ll be providing you with essential tips and tricks to help get your tracks mastered in a cost-effective and timely manner and why music is essential to an artist.
What Is Online Mastering & Why Is It Important?
Music Mastering is most commonly referred to as the process of taking audio and preparing it for distribution.
In a nutshell, it is the final polish on a song, it’s adjusting the levels of the whole song rather than individual tracks.
This is to battle some imbalances from the mix and to enhance certain characteristics fitting for the song. There are a few considerations we need to keep in mind with this process;
Unifying the sound of the record
Maintaining consistency across the album
Preparing for distribution
These are the main pillars of strong music quality, but unfortunately, adhering to these steps can be quite difficult. Not to mention time-consuming and sometimes expensive.
While challenging, it is worth it in the long run. Especially when pitching to tastemakers. Having a consistent sound across your album adds to your professionalism as an artist.
The Technicalities: How Does It Really Work?
We can’t give away all our secrets, unfortunately, but our free online tool uses AI. The AI takes your track and masters it in the same style as a reference track of your choice.
Emastered vs Landr vs Cloudbounce 2022
There isn’t much difference between these three services, they all charge for their tools, compared to our tool which is free of any charge.
With Landr there is a free trial period and testing out one track on all three of these services won’t break the bank, it’s just all about “do you have the time”. Ultimately, it’s down to you, are you happy with your studio mix and then the end result using say, our free tool first?
All services have various pricing options to choose from, many based on monthly limits. They all have an AI driven mastering engine (AI Mastering) and there is a CloudBounce desktop app to use.
They also provide online mastering services which include reference mastering, so you can upload a track for the AI to reference in its processing.
Emastered Review
Emastered is an alternative online mastering tool that provides users with a professionally mastered version of their audio tracks. The service is designed to give users an easy and affordable way to get their music to sound its best.
With Emastered, users can upload their songs, adjust the mastering settings, and preview the mastered version before downloading. The service also offers a variety of mastering presets and sound processing options to help users get the sound they are looking for.
Additionally, the service offers a variety of sound processing tools to help users achieve the best possible sound. With Emastered, users can quickly and easily master their music to a professional standard.
There isn’t much difference between Landr vs emastered
Landr Free Mastering
Landr mastering review is another alternative to our free tool.
It is a cloud-based mastering service that provides users with a fast and easy way to master their music. The service uses advanced algorithms to automatically analyze and master tracks, creating professional-sounding masters in minutes.
Landr also offers a variety of features to help users customize their masters, including EQ, compression, dithering, and more. With Landr, users can master their tracks quickly and easily, without having to hire an expensive mastering engineer. Landr also offers a free trial so users can try out the service before committing to a subscription.
Advantages of Free Online Music Mastering
Firstly, it will sound good!
It’s important to work on your own mixing and mastering within the studio, as there isn’t currently a very viable tool for online mixing and mastering free of any charge, in fact, there just isn’t much out there that includes mixing.
So fine-tune that dynamic range for the best high-quality results. There are many benefits to mastering your work. We have compiled a list to help show the importance of music.
Music Quality Changes Depending On Playback Situations
We have many different ways to listen to music in this era. Car radios, home sound systems, mobile phones, and televisions.
There’s no doubt that your music will sound different on these platforms, however, good mastering helps you sound your best everywhere and in all situations.
You Can Lose Perspective
You can become accustomed to sound/music listening. Similar to how an artist takes a step back to view work or an author ask someone to proofread their book.
Mastering will allow you to step away and look at the whole picture – allowing you to fix any issues you might have missed.
It Could Just Sound Different
You might not be hearing the music the same way the audience does.
This could be due to the quality of your reference monitors, your mixing skills and the poor acoustics in your room. Mastering will be able to fix all of this.
AI vs Humans
It can be quite a complicated field to navigate so if you’re unsure, you can hire sound engineers and mastering services like Abbey Road Studios who have state-of-the-art audio facilities.
Audio processing WAV files, sample rates and frequency range are a lot harder than when you upload a track and let us pick up the legwork, processing CD-quality versions of your music.
Thankfully, people who trained specifically to master tracks and albums exist. Mastering engineers specialise in adding those final touches to albums, which can include various options.
In essence, it requires critical listening. But, keep in mind, results depend on a huge variety of factors such as; the intent of the engineer, the skills/experience of the engineer and the accuracy of your monitors/speakers.
These are only a few of the core components that can impact the final result of a mastery attempt.
Luckily, free software tools exist to facilitate the process. Some tools allow you to pretty much master your track instantly. They use AI and machine learning to replicate the processes human engineers make when processing a track.
While in theory, this sounds great, there can be negative connotations to having your music mastered by AI as opposed to a mastery engineer.
While an AI will determine consistency for your music based on algorithms and programming, an engineer can listen to your music and think about what it needs to sound just right. A real person will be able to ensure your music/album conveys the correct emotion across the board.
FAQ
Which best free online mastering tool?
Apart from ours, the best free online mastering tool is Auphonic. It is a powerful, easy-to-use online audio mastering tool that can help you improve the sound quality of your audio recordings. It features a variety of tools such as EQ, compression, limiting, and more. It also has a built-in loudness normalizer and a dithering algorithm for improved sound quality.
Is online mastering any good?
Yes but…. Online mastering can be a good option for many people. It can be a cost-effective way to get professional-level mastering without having to hire a professional engineer. Additionally, it can be a great way to get your project mastered quickly and conveniently. However, it is important to note that online mastering is not always the best option for everyone. If you are looking for a very specific sound or are working on a complex project, it may be best to hire a professional mastering engineer.
Online mastering is a process of mastering audio recordings using digital audio workstations (DAWs) and plugins over the internet. It is a form of audio mastering that is done remotely, usually by a professional audio engineer.
The process involves adjusting the dynamics, equalization, stereo imaging, and other aspects of an audio mix to make it sound more professional and polished.
The engineer will use a variety of tools and techniques to achieve the desired sound, including compression, EQ, reverb, and stereo widening. Online mastering can be a cost-effective way to get professional-level results without the need to travel to a studio.
Is mastering harder than mixing?
Mastering is generally considered to be more difficult than mixing, as it requires a more sophisticated knowledge of audio engineering and a greater level of skill in order to achieve the desired sound.
Mixing involves adjusting the levels and EQ of different elements in a track, while mastering involves making sure that all the elements of a track are balanced and working together in the most effective way.
Mastering also requires a good understanding of how different frequencies interact with each other, as well as a keen ear for detail.
How much should mastering a song cost?
There are paid services starting from $3 per track, but also free options like the service at Music Gateway
Is mastering more expensive than mixing?
Mixing is considered more expensive than mastering, as it simply takes longer. You could, for example, he mixing one song for a whole song before you get it spot on, whilst a mastering engineer may only take an hour to master on track.
Do I really need a mastering engineer?
Yes and No. If you can afford it, we recommend you use a professional engineer in a top-notch recording studio. But as an alternative, the online route can provide you will good results, just not as good as a professional human.
Music Mastery: Final Thoughts
Regardless, music mastery done by software is still a great alternative if you’re looking to save some time and money.
It could free you up to create more music or promote what you already have. Perhaps software mastery could be a good idea if you’re just starting out in the industry and still establishing your brand.
It could be good to save up and invest in a mastery engineer down the road once you’ve grounded yourself as an artist.
Wherever you are within your musical career, music mastery is a must. Whether you decide to do it via software/AI or paid professionals, it will only boost the quality of your music tenfold. While also maintaining your professionalism as an artist.
We highly recommend taking the time to learn about music and deciding how best to execute it.
What’s more, you keep 100% of your sales and we don’t get a penny from you.
If you’re a music artist looking to get help with any aspect of the music pipeline we’d love to hear from you. From creating your first track to promoting an album, we’re here to help.
If you like our free mastering online tool, make sure to check out all our other free music tools.
