Hal Leonard 00331908

Mastering is the final stage of creating a piece of recorded music, before either releasing it on the web or duplicating it onto CD for distribution. It's essential for putting the final professional “finish” on the audio; making sure the tone is correctly balanced, the dynamics are controlled, and the level is set properly. While professional mastering engineers have expensive specialized equipment to help them with the mastering process, the latest generation of hardware and software tools available to home and project studio musicians can do a wonderful job of mastering audio releases at a fraction of the cost of commercial mastering houses.

After an overview of mastering and the gear required, the book goes on to cover acoustic considerations, studio set-up, problem solving, distribution, and much, much more. The book's companion CD-ROM includes examples, useful helper applications, and plug-in demos to help you work through the book's tutorials. This is the only guide you will ever need to take your home recordings to the next level.