What is audio mastering?
Mastering is the final stage of audio production—the process of putting the finishing touches on a song by enhancing the overall sound, creating consistency across the album, and preparing it for distribution.
iZotope Learn
Read and watch tutorials for iZotope audio plugins like Ozone, Neutron, and RX. Get music production tips, boost your post production skills, and more.
Vote for iZotope RX 12 in the SOS Awards 2027
When a take is ruined by hum, bleed, or a passing siren, you know where to turn. Now you can return the favor. iZotope RX 12 Advanced has been nominated...
A note from Boris on what’s next
Hello, iZotope Community, As we celebrate iZotope’s 25th anniversary, I wanted to take a moment to introduce myself personally. I’m Boris...
Johnnie Burn on Digger: Mixing satire and cleaning VistaVision noise with iZotope RX
Bringing a vision to life requires finding the perfect balance between story, performance, and technical precision. In director Alejandro González...
Mic bleed: how to prevent it, remove it, and use it in your mix
Ever isolate a vocal and come across an unwelcome instrument in the mix? That, my friend, is mic bleed: sound from one source picked up by a mic meant for...
Inside Factory Underground: How Kenny Cash bridges ADR, TV post, and jam band production
Located about an hour outside New York City, Factory Underground has evolved into a powerhouse recording complex housing four control rooms, a soundstage,...
The "loudness war" myth vs. reality: are top 20 Spotify hits actually getting quieter in 2026?
Nearly two decades ago we started hearing predictions that music streaming, and specifically loudness normalization, would end the loudness war. The...
How Easton Allyn balances iHeartRadio hit shows, remote recording challenges, and iZotope RX
From local radio waves to syndicated powerhouses, audio engineering is equal parts technical precision and creative adaptation. Few people exemplify this...
Gain staging: what it is and how to do it
Gain staging is the process of setting the level at each point in your signal chain so your audio is loud enough to rise above noise, but not so loud that...
25 things you (probably) didn’t know about iZotope on our 25th birthday
It all started in a college dorm room with a handful of passionate audio geeks and a lot of late nights. Twenty-five years later, iZotope's...
10 signs your vocal isn't ready for mixing (vocal pre-mix checklist)
Every mixer knows the feeling – you pull up a vocal and you swear it sounded great in tracking; but you slap a compressor on it, and suddenly...
Parametric EQ: What it is and how to use one
Aside from the volume fader and stereo pan-pot/slider, the equalizer (EQ), is arguably the most powerful tool we have for mixing music. We can use EQ to...
Frequency Check: where do you land on the curve this week?
Welcome to Frequency Check, your weekly pulse on how the audio community approaches mixing and mastering. Every week in the iZotope newsletter, we ask...
