Why are my mixes thin and not as loud as commercial CDs?

Mastering room

Your computer recording will be noticeably lower in level than any commercially-released CDs, even if you have raised the recording right up to its peak level.

Your “final mix” isn’t really final! There is one more all-important stage your tracks must go through.

Commercial recordings are almost always “mastered” after the final mixes shave been done. One of the functions of this mastering stage is to increase the loudness of the recordings.

This is done using a combination of very high-quality compressors, limiters and equalizers.

The mastering stage is where experience really matters. All of these processors can easily mess up the mix. That’s why it’s important to use a great mastering engineer who has had lots of experience with good track record. Age really matters here.

This is a stage which can cost a few hundred dollars but everyone who has had it done all agree that it’s money well spent.

Mastering compressor

If you can’t afford to go this extra step, home-studio mastering plug-ins are available but you really have to do your homework to make them work really successfully. Lots of trial-and-error.

The mysterious mastering stage is completely explained in great detail in our course because some of our graduates go on to a career in professional mastering. (20 more pages on this in your course)