
As you probably know, mastering puts the finishing touches to a song, enhancing and polishing the overall sound. It gives the mix another dimension.
When working on more than one song, mastering also ensures the consistency throughout the whole album or EP, and optimizes the music for different devices and surroundings, as well as different distribution formats.
Now, who’s to say your neighbors cousin’s buddy couldn’t provide you with a nice master for free. Whether it’s necessary to rely on a professional mastering engineer solely depends on your goals. If you’re just making music for yourself as a hobby, your money is possibly better spent somewhere else. But if you want to compete with all the polished songs on the market, mass produce CD’s, send your album to a major label or retail platforms, or your music is very important to you, then a trained mastering engineer with a fresh set of ears, sweet hybrid analogue goodness, studio facility purposefully designed for critical listening, and the skills to elevate your music may be a solid investment. I provide high value at an affordable price.
If you’re still unsure, maybe this will help; I offer free test masters for new clients.