Learn
Mixing and mastering for streaming
Everything you need to finish a track that holds its own next to commercial releases: how loudness is measured, what streaming services do to your music, how to get a fuller mix, and how to master and deliver it. Each chapter shows what to look for in MasterScope and what to do about it in Liminal.
- 01How loud should you master?How many LUFS to master to for Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube, SoundCloud and the club, why −14 isn't a target, and why your song sounds quieter than others on Spotify.
- 02Why does my master sound worse on Spotify?Quieter, duller or crunchier on Spotify than in your DAW? Normalisation, lossy encoding and playback settings explained, with a checklist to fix it.
- 03How loud are the songs you're up against?Measure the loudness, true peak and density (PLR) of any song on Spotify or YouTube, and use it as your mastering target. Free, with MasterScope Meter.
- 04How streaming plays your musicSpotify, Apple Music, YouTube, Tidal and the other big services measure the loudness of every track and turn it up or down so that everything plays at…
- 05Measuring loudness: LUFSLUFS (loudness units relative to full scale) measures loudness the way we hear it, following the ITU-R BS.1770 standard. Before measuring, the signal is…
- 06Peaks: sample, true and codecLoudness is about the body of the sound; peaks are its highest points. Three readings matter, each stricter than the last.
- 07Density and PLRThe peak-to-loudness ratio (PLR) is true peak minus integrated loudness. It measures how far the peaks stand above the body of the track, so it is the…
- 08Tonal balanceTonal balance is how the energy is spread from sub to air. MasterScope compares each octave with pink noise, which has equal energy per octave and sounds…
- 09The low endThe kick and bass carry most of a track's energy, so they decide a lot about how clean and loud it can be.
- 10Stereo and monoA wide mix sounds big on headphones, but much of the world listens in mono or near-mono: phone speakers, Bluetooth speakers, clubs. Anything that cancels…
- 11Dynamics in the mixA master can only be as dense as the mix allows cleanly. If a few parts poke out far above the rest, the master limiter has to pull the whole track down…
- 12How a limiter worksA mastering limiter does two jobs: it stops peaks going over a ceiling, and it lets you raise the overall level until the track is as dense as you want.…
- 13A mastering workflowThis is the loop that works with MasterScope and Liminal. It starts in the mix, because that is where the biggest gains are.
- 14Exporting and deliveryExporting and delivery
- 15Release checklistMasterScope's PDF report collects all of these in one place, so it is also a good document to keep with each release.
- 16GlossaryGlossary