Now that we know the main differences, I'll explain in more detail what each part is made of. This means: In mastering, you can't (or it's very, very difficult) make the bass quieter without also affecting the bass drum. In mastering, however, the changes are much more subtle, affecting the whole song at once. So you can make the guitar extremely distorted without the voice distorting. This is possible because you can edit each track individually. When mixing, you can make strong sound changes (whenever it suits the artist's vision).But if the song is mixed well, this is not necessary. In contrast, mastering usually involves working with one stereo track, although it's now common to master using stems. Metal songs can have more than 60 different tracks, while other, more complex projects (classical music, for example) can have more than 150. But mastering is about making the already mixed song sound good and consistent next to the other songs (radio, album.). When mixing, you work a lot with emotions.Mixing is about expressing the artist's vision and conveying feelings, while mastering focuses on sound quality and the technical requirements of the various music platforms (digital, CD, vinyl).It is made sure that the song has a similar volume to other songs in the album, and that the song sounds equally good in all the different speaker systems. During mastering, this stereo file is edited. The end result: a stereo file that is then sent to the mastering engineer. Mixing ensures that the different instruments (vocals, guitar, drums.) are balanced with each other and brings them into equilibrium.Mixing studios have very good acoustics, but mastering studios must have perfect acoustics, because mastering requires hearing more in detail.

Music mixing and mastering