Hey a,

After 15+ years of working as a professional mastering engineer, one thing still shocks me.

If you buy into this myth, it will sabotage your sound like nothing else.

The big misconception I'm talking about is this:

"Mastering makes your music loud."

Yes, the final loudness push happens in the mastering stage.

But that's only half of the truth. 

To help you understand how this actually works, we have to take a look at what I call the "loudness potential" of any given track. 

The loudness potential determines how much you can push the material into clippers and limiters without any audible artifacts. 

You can only make a track loud in mastering when everything else fits together like pieces of a puzzle. 

Kick and bass have to complement each other instead of fighting for attention.

Your lead synth has to stand out from the background atmospheres while still feeling embedded.

All these micro-decisions are made in sound design, composition, and arrangement. 

The job of the mix is to further enhance these qualities.

Once you tick all these boxes, you can push your track to insane levels of loudness in mastering without any perceived downside. 

But wait a second...

...do we even want to do that?

Here's my brutally honest take on loudness:

To me, every track has a sweet spot of what I call "density."

This is not a technical term but rather how I emotionally perceive the track.

• It's that feeling of elements being glued together without sacrificing clarity and separation.

• It's the perception of sounds jumping out of the speakers without sounding overcompressed.

• It's the nice touch of overtones making the track sound full and rich without unwanted distortion.

In essence it's that feeling of "it sounds like a record now."

Loudness (measured in LUFS) is one of many components playing a role here.

That's exactly why I don't care about hitting specific LUFS targets, I simply master to the perfect level of perceived "density" that any given track needs.

So stop obsessing over numbers and start listening to the density sweet spot.

And if something doesn't sound like a record, chances are it's not something you can solve in mastering.

Your music matters. Let's make it count.

Philip

PS: Want me and my team to help you create great-sounding tracks personally? In our coaching program, we'll guide you 1:1 at every step of the way. Book your free discovery call here to find out more.