[cporro]

i'm not a mastering guy but i have found people misunderstand what
mastering is. i honestly think that because "master" is in the word
they think it's a lot more influencial then it actual is. i had a
woman who thought i could tune a single string on her guitar in
mastering. i explained i couldn't and neither could a guy that
actually does mastering.

when i break down the mastering thing to people i say a few things.
none of them are my own. from a local mastering engineer "if you don't
like the mix you won't like the master". and i think bob katz says
something to the effect of "best case scenario is improving a letter
grade". that's pretty good going from a C to a B. but then i've also
heard cases where the mix was done so well that there weren't many
changes in mastering.

the other thing i tell people is mastering is a very specialized
thing. if you think throwing a compressor on the master buss and using
a 10 band eq is mastering... well, then i'm a mastering engineer which
i'm not at all. you need a special set of ears, very good monitoring,
and some high quality gear.