As this CD consisted of two slightly different bands I had to make sure that when switching between tracks the levels did not change.

http://www.robtoulson.rt60.co.uk/rt_docs/RT_CompilationMasteringLoudness_ARP2013.pdf

This PDF by Dr Rob Toulson gives a really good overview of mastering a compilation CD.

Fortunately for me, I was mixing both of the tracks and both bands a relatively similar. This meant that getting them to the same level was a lot easier.

I approached the mastering by making each band’s music as good as I could get it. I then referenced their level against each other. This made sure that even if the levels were out with other music they would be the same.

My main research in regards to mixing and mastering of this project was done with these books.

Mixing Secrets – Mike Senior

Mixing and Mastering in the box – Steve Savage

As we wanted the mixes of a high standard doing some background research was needed.

Even though I was relatively comfortable with my skill level when mixing, it was mastering i didn’t know much about.

Both books offered good insight into the whole process with both stressing the quality of the recordings and the balance of the mix. Both of these in our case worked out really well from the recordings to the mixdown. We used around 5 sets of speakers to reference the material to try and get a good balance.

I found mainly that the best methods involved little to no processing. Both books talked about the importance of Dynamic range and that is something we tried to keep. I learned about the overuse of compression and how a lot of the time EQ can give you a similar result.

During the mastering stage, I got stuck with trying to get the material to the correct level. The Savage book definitely helped here as it encouraged me to go back to the mixing stage to tweak the initial mixdowns.