Table of Contents
- Equalization (EQ) & Frequency Balance
- Dynamic Range & Compression
- Saturation, Color & Harmonics
- Transients & Impact
- Stereo Image, Space & Depth
- How to use reference tracks to describe the sound you want
When preparing your track for mastering, communicating your vision can be tricky. You know exactly how you want your music to feel, but translating those emotions into specific audio terms isn’t always easy.
Mastering is the final creative and technical step in the production process. To help us achieve the exact sonic results you are looking for, we have put together this translation guide. Use these industry-standard terms to describe what you want modified, enhanced, or corrected in your final master.
1. Equalization (EQ) & Frequency Balance
This refers to the balance of frequencies—from the deepest bass to the highest treble.
- Warmer: A smoother sound with a rich low-mid range and less aggressive high frequencies. Think “cozy,” smooth, or vintage analog.
- Crisper / Bright: Clear, sharp, and distinct high frequencies. This option makes elements like cymbals, vocals, and acoustic guitars stand out with high-end definition.
- More Low-End: Boosting the bass guitar and kick drum frequencies (around $60\text{ Hz} – 250\text{ Hz}$) to give the track more weight, power, and body.
- More Sub: Enhancing the ultra-low bass frequencies (below $60\text{ Hz}$) that you feel rather than hear—crucial for modern hip-hop, electronic, and pop music.
- More Air: Boosting the very highest frequencies (above $10\text{ kHz}$). It creates a sense of breath, luxury, and open space around vocals and overheads.
- More Pronounced Mid-Range: Bringing out the frequencies where the human voice, electric guitars, and snare drums live (around $500\text{ Hz} – 2\text{ kHz}$), adding presence and drive.
- Muddy / Boxy: Use these terms if your mix feels cluttered, unclear, or like it is playing inside a cardboard box. It tells us we need to clean up the low-mids.
- Harsh / Piercing: If the upper-mids or highs hurt your ears at loud volumes (often around $2\text{ kHz} – 5\text{ kHz}$), let us know so we can tame them.
2. Dynamic Range & Compression
This controls the relationship between the loudest and quietest parts of your song, affecting energy, consistency, and overall loudness.
- Punchier: Accentuating the initial hit of instruments (like the kick drum or snare) so they “pop” out of the speakers with physical impact.
- More Stable: Making the volume of the song more consistent from section to section, ensuring no elements suddenly jump out too loudly or disappear.
- Denser / More Compressed: Reducing the dynamic range so the quiet details are brought up and the loud parts are brought down, resulting in a thick, powerful “wall of sound.”
- Glued: Bringing the independent instruments together so they sound like a cohesive, single performance rather than a collection of separate tracks.
- Squashed / Lifeless: If a mix is compressed too much, it loses its emotional peaks and valleys. Tell us if you want to explicitly avoid this, or if your primary goal is maximum commercial loudness.
3. Saturation, Color & Harmonics
This involves adding subtle, pleasant distortion to inject character, grit, or a vintage vibe into a digital mix.
- Denser / More Pronounced: Using saturation to fill the microscopic gaps in the audio waveform, making instruments sound thicker and more “forward” in the speakers.
- Grittier / Bite: Adding audible harmonic distortion to give the track an edgy, aggressive, or rock-and-roll attitude.
- Analog Warmth / Tape Emulation: Simulating the sound of vintage hardware or magnetic tape, which gently rounds off harsh digital peaks and adds a pleasing, velvety texture.
- Transparent / Clean: Use this if you want the master to be perfectly accurate to your original mix without adding any extra hardware coloration or vintage “flavor.”
4. Transients & Impact
Transients are the very beginning of a sound—the initial “click” of a drumstick hitting a snare or a pick hitting a guitar string.
- More Attack / Snappy: Making the initial strike of notes sharper and more defined. This is great for making drums cut through a busy mix.
- Less Attack / Rounded: Softening the initial strike of notes so they blend more smoothly and musically into the background.
- More Sustain: Lengthening the “tail” or resonance of a sound after it is hit (e.g., letting a cymbal ring out longer or a bass note hold its energy).
- Less Sustain: Clamping down on the ring-out of instruments to make the overall rhythm sound tighter, cleaner, and more staccato.
5. Stereo Image, Space & Depth
This describes how the music fits into a three-dimensional space between the left and right speakers.
- Spacious / 3D: Creating a sense of lifelike realism where you can pinpoint exactly where every instrument is sitting horizontally and vertically.
- Deeper: Enhancing the front-to-back depth, making elements like lead vocals feel close to your face while reverbs and delays fade beautifully into the background.
- Wider: Stretching the stereo image outward to the far left and right edges, making the song feel massive and immersive.
- Centered / Focused: Pulling the energy into the middle of the stereo field to ensure the bass, kick, and lead vocals feel rock-solid, heavy, and direct.
6. How to use reference tracks to describe the sound you want
Sometimes, the easiest way to explain a sound is simply to point to it. Providing 1–3 reference tracks—professionally mastered, commercially released songs that you love—is one of the best ways to align our goals.
To get the most out of your reference tracks, keep these three tips in mind:
- Be Specific: You don’t need a track that sounds exactly like your song in every way. Tell us what part of the reference you like. For example: “I love the low-end weight of Track A, but I want the high-end crispness and vocal presence of Track B.”
- Match the Genre Context: Try to pick references within a similar genre or instrumentation as your own track. Comparing an acoustic indie folk song to a heavily limited electronic dance track can send mixed signals about dynamic range and loudness goals.
- Focus on the Master, Not the Mix: Try to listen past the individual leveling of the instruments and focus on the overall final presentation—how loud the song is, how wide the stereo image feels, and how the overall frequency balance sits from top to bottom.
