With the proliferation of free software and illegal plug-ins came the birth of fly-by-night inexperienced want-to-be mastering studios or mastering engineers. Some will master your songs for a ridiculously low fee. One should throw caution when measuring price, credibility and experience.

Before choosing a mastering studio or engineer to work on your precious recordings, it is important to determine 3 important factors as listed below:

Reputation, experience and credits

The first determining factor will be the mastering studio engineer’s reputation and experience. You may come across a mastering studio or engineer who has performed mastering on an independent or well known band/artist or perhaps even a record label that you were fond of. This notion adds credibility to his mastering services.

Listen to mastering samples online

We stress that you listen to some of their mastering work online. Almost all mastering studios or engineers marketing their services online should show-off their prized work with previous clients. Especially with mastering studios or engineers with no track record , talk is cheap. Let’s hear the results. If you are coming from a rock project, let’s hear if his mastering work for rock music sits in well with you. Alternatively, if you are coming from a hip-hop project, let’s hear if it translates well.

Courtesy Mastering Sample

Some mastering services will compete for your business by providing you a free courtesy mastering sample ranging from 30 seconds to 1 minute for one of your songs. Doing this will enable you to test out the mastering sample on various listening mediums such as your favorite home stereo and car stereo. You may listen and compare it to your favorite popular artist within the same genre. Once you approve the mastering sample, you may then proceed with mastering your entire project or album.

This is a valuable option since the mastering studio or engineer can early identify any potential problems in your mixes.

Some mastering studios or engineers provide an added benefit providing you free consultation to your mixes. These are exceptionally rare mastering studio professionals who care about your project and providing you good results. Some are trained to consult you on your mixes thus giving you tips or suggestions to help improve your mixes prior or during the mastering process. Mastering studios or engineers who offer this added service are valuable professionals to work with on your precious recordings.