The Difference between You and a Pro

If we really break it down, a mastering pro usually has three things over what you do at

home. 

■ The gear. A real pro mastering house has many things available that you probably

won’t find in a simple home or small studio DAW room, such as high-end A/D and

D/A converters, a great-sounding listening environment, and an exceptional monitoring

system. 

The monitoring system of these facilities sometimes costs far more than many entire

home studios. Cost isn’t the point here, but quality is, since you can rarely hear what

you need to hear in order to make the adjustments that you need to make on the

near-field monitors that most recording studios use. The vast majority of monitors

and the rooms in which they reside are just not precise enough.

■ The ears. The mastering engineer is the real key to the process. This is all he does day

in and day out. He has ‘‘big ears’’ because he masters at least eight hours every day

and knows his monitors the way you know your favorite pair of sneakers. Plus, his

reference point of what constitutes a good-sounding mix is finely honed, thanks to

working hours and hours on the best- and worst-sounding mixes of each genre of

music.

■ A backup. I don’t know who said it, but this phrase rings true: ‘‘The difference

between a pro and an amateur is that a pro always has a backup.’’ It’s good advice

for any part of recording, but especially for mastering.