How to Become a Mastering Engineer

What does a mastering engineer do? While to some it may seem like some “dark art,” a mastering engineer’s role, by definition, is pretty straightforward. A mastering engineer bridges the gap between the creative side of audio and the manufacturing/distribution process. The origin of the modern mastering engineer’s role came from the transfer engineer of the “old days.” The engineer would transfer the master tapes to the lacquer master, which was then used in the vinyl record making process. 

As the music production process evolved, the role of the mastering engineer took on a more creative role. This meant that the skills and tools needed to do the job properly also developed and became more diverse.

Today, audio mastering is an integral part of every commercial music production, from Taylor Swift to Kendrick Lamar—and mastering engineers are the ones making the magic happen.

If you’re thinking, “wow, this sounds like a job for me,” then you’re in the right place to learn more. We’ll be talking to professional audio mastering engineers to learn how to become a mastering engineer, what skills you need to develop, and what tools you’ll need to get there. 

Follow along with this article using iZotope  Ozone , a powerful mastering plug-in that can help you intelligently master your tracks. 

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What is a mastering engineer?

The role of the modern mastering engineer combines artistic taste, technical knowledge of audio formats and standards, and an understanding of signal flow and audio gear as it pertains to the mastering process to create a clear, dynamic, and commercially-standard audio production.

They are a critical listener, have objective ears, and polish and finalize mixes. These masters are destined for streaming services, vinyl, cassette, etc. The mastering engineer makes an album a cohesive whole, or makes a single stand out in a crowd. They use full-range monitors in an acoustically treated room to make sure any sonic issues can be addressed before the music makes it out into the world. 

The engineer uses equalization, compression, and other tools to both correct and enhance the mix to reach the client’s final vision. Need to know more? Learn more in our mastering guide which goes further in depth the history and role the mastering engineer plays.

How do you become a mastering engineer?

It goes without saying that you don’t become an audio engineer overnight. Most engineers, even the ones at the top of their game, are always learning, exploring, and creating. To become anything—mastering engineer, writer, painter—it all takes practice, and a desire to improve. That being said, there are established fundamentals—both in skill and gear—needed to be a mastering engineer. Where you take those things, and how far you go is up to you!

What skills are needed?

The most important skills a mastering engineer must have are:

1. Critical listening skills, ear training, a sense of nuance about music
2. The ability to be objective, confident, and understanding with clients
3. An understanding of audio production: signal flow, electronics, the recording and mixingprocess. 

You don’t need to be an electrical engineer or have recorded a thousand bands, but knowledge of the music production process is a must. You’ll need to be able to communicate efficiently with your clients, sometimes read between the lines, and understand the difference between your own personal taste and the client’s wishes. And the discernment to know what to fix, and what to leave alone. 

Critical listening is very important. Listen to music of all genres, find recordings you trust to keep on hand as references, work on describing the music you are listening to objectively—less concerned about if you personally like something, but rather…how does it sound? 

There are instances where if you were the recording engineer or mix engineer you might also end up being the mastering engineer. This may be out of budget needs, time constraints, or just creative control. In this case, being objective after spending so much time with a project is even more important. 

Paul “Willie Green” Womack, Producer/Engineer at Willie Green Music says, 

“An important skill for a mastering engineer is the ability to be objective, particularly if you were involved in other parts of the project like recording, production and mixing. Having the objective ear of another mastering engineer can be valuable, but many engineers (including me) do their own mastering. I know how I want my records to sound, and I know how to get them there.”

This may mean making changes to how you work on a project. If you are wearing many “hats”—getting better at your mastering skills may help you become a better mixer, or tracking engineer by teaching you how to be self-critical and objective about your own work. 

Paul goes on to say, “For this to work you have to keep an open mind and be honest about your earlier work. Don’t be embarrassed to adjust something you thought was a great idea before…Taking some time away from the project can help you get some perspective before putting on the finishing touches.”

Not only are “soft skills” extremely important when learning to be a mastering engineer, technical skills are also part of the foundation. Understanding basic audio signal flow both in your outboard gear/monitor path as well as within your DAW is key. 

There are a number of fantastic podcasts, and tutorials that go more in-depth about technical matters as well as life experiences from engineers and producers all across the audio world. Are You Listening? is iZotope’s series that teaches you the basics of audio mixing and mastering, a good springboard to start from. 

Tools and skills go hand in hand…other good podcasts include Working Class Audio, Pensado’s Place, Signal to Noise Podcast, Tape Op Podcast, Master your Mix Podcast…and many more.

What are the audio-specific tools necessary to be a successful mastering engineer?

At its simplest, these are some of the tools necessary to be a successful mastering engineer:

1. Ears
2. A well-treated room
3. Audio hardware and software that helps you do your job (DAW, plugins, outboard compressors and EQs, etc.)

The room is mission critical when it comes to mastering. If you can’t hear an accurate representation of low end and top end, and everything in between—how can you be expected to use noise reduction tools such as iZotope RX to remove mouth clicks or an insistent buzz or how much sibilance to de-ess? 

Ian Sefchick, mastering engineer at Dark Sky Mastering gives this advice:

“By far the most important element needed to produce a good master is the listening environment. A frequency flat, non reflective room and speaker system. The equipment required for a low noise, high fidelity sound reproduction these days is easy to acquire. Affordable speakers that sound great are abundant as well. The problem is, most likely all this equipment is placed in a small room, possibly with some acoustic paneling on the walls to help with echo. Under 500 Hz and a small room starts to distort, amplify and diminish lower frequencies in all kinds of unpredictable ways. As amazing as our brain and hearing are, it's extremely difficult to compensate for that kind of sound distortion. It's very frustrating to fight that.

There are ways to combat low frequency but it's not cheap or easy. The two common routes are large expensive bass traps or special subwoofers along with software to counteract the problem frequencies. It's surprising how much mass you need to attenuate a 40 Hz wave. A box the size of a small refrigerator filled with sound absorbing material may be needed. Even 4" thick acoustic panels will only attenuate high-mid frequencies.

Mastering is meaningless without a proper listening environment. To be an effective mastering engineer you have to take the guesswork out of listening. You can argue about creative direction, but the reference point needs to be real.

Once you are secure in your room’s honesty, gather the digital or analog gear needed to do work efficiently and within the scope of your budget.”

Jett Galindo, mastering engineer at The Bakery in Los Angeles, says:

“First, you need a digital audio workstation (DAW) that allows you to record, edit, and process audio. However, it's important to choose a DAW that suits your needs and budget. Options range from free, open-source DAWs like Audacity to popular professional DAWs such as Logic, Pro Tools, Cubase, and Reaper, to name a few. As you become more serious about mastering, you may want to invest in DAWs with more mastering-centric features such as album assembly and metadata embedding. Examples of mastering DAWs include WaveLab, Pyramix, Sadie, and Soundblade. 

It’s important to understand what you’ll be doing as a mastering engineer, and purchasing tools that match the work you’ll be doing.”

Jett continues, ‘The three main techniques to master audio are EQ, compression, and limiting. iZotope's Ozone is a great starting point as it features modules that specialize in each of these areas. Starting with software plugins before investing in audio processing hardware is recommended for beginners. As you gain experience and have a better understanding of what tools you need, you can decide whether investing in audio processing hardware is necessary for you.”

How do you practice your craft and expand your portfolio?

Much like getting started in most career paths, small steps will lead to bigger ones. If you’re already part of a creative community, offer services to friends—ask for their feedback on their mixes, collaborate on listening sessions with them, get to know what you’re listening to and how to talk to artists. 

A few other ideas:

1. Mentorships and internships, where applicable
2. Charging appropriately for your skill level
3. Learning how to your tools correctly

Mentorships and internships can be an invaluable part of the engineering process, getting to know how established mastering engineers work. They might come fewer and farther between than traditional internships at recording studios. The scope of the work is more narrowed; instead of setting up 20 microphones, helping with soundcheck, striking—things that benefit from the “more hands make light work” mentality—you might be opening a DAW template, loading in songs, making sure the mixes are ready to go, cleaning a tape machine, and listening to the final masters for errors, etc. This work is just as important, but it is less physical, so many mastering engineers that work for themselves will do it themselves. 

Adam Gonsalves, Senior Mastering Engineer at Telegraph Mastering in Portland, Oregon, agrees:

“Seek out guidance or perhaps a mentorship from a trusted mastering engineer. It will save you countless hours and mistakes. While you are absorbing knowledge from reliable sources, work on friend’s projects and sharpen your skills. You get good at what you practice and the more you master the better your masters will sound.”

Most mastering engineers (myself included) are kind human beings who like sharing their knowledge. Even if a mastering engineer doesn’t have a true assistantship or internship to offer, most will let you listen in on a session, give you advice if asked, and be generally supportive.

While you’re going through this process, it’s a good time to understand how engineers in the community charge for their services, and what is appropriate to charge given your skill set and what you’re comfortable asking for. This number usually changes over time, and it’s not at all unusual to do free work for friends or low cost until you feel you’re solid enough in your skills to ask for money. Everyone has a different way of handling the money side of audio engineering —it’s not always an easy thing to talk about or be fair with—but like in any business, it’s important to be fair to the client, as well as to yourself.

Finding a process that works for you, both in the creative/technical side of the field as well as the business side —that’s what’s important, Ask questions, ask other engineers with more experience, be humble, be creative. There’s no one way to become a mastering engineer.

Adam goes on to say, “Becoming a mastering engineer is not just assembling tools suitable for mastering. That’s easy, high quality signal processing from companies like iZotope is ubiquitous. Getting the right tools has never been easier. Mastering isn’t a pile of gear or a stacked plugin folder though, it’s a process, and mastering engineers occupy a unique role. Too often the focus is on things and not on how and when to properly use them.”