Mixing

Mixing is the process of combining a multi-track recording into a stereo track. In the production timeline, mixing comes after recording and before mastering, and it has tremendous effect on the sound of your song.

Mixing engineers balance levels of the different tracks, manipulate and enhance their sonic character, and add creative effects to make the song pop out of the speakers, feel cohesive, interesting, and polished.

Mastering

Mastering adds the final sonic touch on a mixed song. The goal of mastering is matching a song's sonic character to that of other songs on the same album, optimizing loudness, and adding the last 5% of sonic adjustment (bass, treble, clarity, wideness).

Mastering is quicker than mixing and makes less of a difference on the overall sound of your song, but is nonetheless important as a finishing touch.

SoundBetter is world's leading marketplace for music production talent.

SoundBetter helps musicians worldwide find and securely hire top pre-vetted music production pros that help them get to great-sounding finished songs.

This Song Production Cost Calculator is based on data from thousands of song production jobs we've facilitated.

It is intended to give a rough estimate of the total cost of producing a song by breaking down the different components of the song production process, and looking at average costs for different levels of pros for each.