Scheme of Work

Week 1 – An Introduction to Mastering

• The role of a mastering engineer
• Understanding your listening environment
• Referencing across different monitoring setups
• An overview of the mastering process
• Digital audio principles for mastering

Week 2 – Mastering Tools and Frequency Shaping

• Audio processing tools used in mastering
• Digital audio workstations for mastering
• Setting up a typical mastering chain
• Uses for and approaches to EQ in mastering
• Mid-side EQ and creating clarity in a mix
• Adding tonal character, saturation and warmth

Week 3 – Loudness and Dynamic Processing

• How loud should a mastered track be?
• Loudness Units relative to Full Scale (LUFS)
• Loudness levels for contemporary streaming platforms
• Dynamics, loudness and clipping
• Approaches to dynamic processing in mastering
• Limiters and Maximisers

Week 4 – Stereo Imaging and Restoration

• Controlling the stereo image with elliptical filters
• Mastering techniques for adding width
• Avoiding phase cancellation during mastering
• Audio restoration and drop-out repair

Week 5 – Album Mastering, Metadata and Mastering For Vinyl

• Achieving consistency when mastering an album
• Application of dither when rendering a master
• File formats and metadata
• Considerations for final delivery to clients
• The rebirth of vinyl mastering
• The cutting lathe
• Limitations of vinyl mastering

Prerequisites

What Do I Need To Know? 

You’re here because you understand that mastering is far more than simply making music louder. It is a sophisticated engineering process that requires equal measures of critical listening, practical application, and technical knowledge to prepare audio for final release and distribution. This process requires a good understanding of key concepts, including sound theory, digital signal processing, operation of a digital audio workstation (DAW) and a fundamental understanding of how audio behaves across entire frequency spectrums, dynamic ranges, and playback systems. 

While this course welcomes anyone passionate about mastering, the learning experience will be significantly more meaningful and productive for students who arrive with some foundational knowledge and experience in working with digital audio.

Below you will find the suggested prerequisites for the course, but if you have any questions or need help assessing your prior knowledge and experience, please contact us at hello@themist.uk

Skills and Understanding

Competency using Digital Audio Workstations (DAWs) – Much of the coursework, including learning activities and classes, happens online, but you will need to be able to use a DAW to complete the course project. Although we will cover mastering DAWs (Sequoia, Pryramix, Wavelab) during the course, any professional DAW you have access to will do, including Logic Pro, Ableton Live, Cubase, Pro Tools, Reaper, Studio One and others.

A fundamental understanding of DAW-based production and mixing techniques – Any experience producing and mixing music in a DAW will give you an edge here. A good understanding of how music is edited, balanced and manipulated in a DAW will be foundational to learning the principles and processes of mastering.

Experience using production and mixing tools such as EQ and compression – The course will provide a lot of foundational knowledge around EQ and dynamics processing, and how they are applied in mastering. Arriving with a basic understanding of these tools and their operation will make the experience more engaging and help you to distinguish between applications in mastering and general production and mixing. 

Basic Understanding of sound theory and digital audio – In the first lesson, the course provides a refresher in the fundamental principles of sound, as well as the basics of digital audio, including analogue to digital conversion, sample rates and bit depths. This knowledge is vital for mastering, and anyone arriving with a good understanding of these concepts will find they can get up and running with the course faster.

Time Requirements

5 weeks of study – The course runs over 5 weeks, followed by a 1-2-1 session with one of Metropolis’ mastering engineers to get feedback on your coursework and final project.

3 hours of coursework every week – Allocate 3 hours each week for this course. Set aside this time to review the weekly coursework, which includes exercises and learning activities, as well as any homework assignments you may receive. Additionally, you will have a 90-minute class each week with a tutor and a mastering engineer.

Self-directed practice and study – We recommend that you spend an additional 2 to 10 hours per week, outside of your dedicated study hours, practising your skills, mastering records and working through the course project and learning activities. The course learning activities can be accessed at any time and are designed to be repeatable. The more you practice, the more your skills will improve. 

Technical Requirements

Besides the skills, knowledge and time prerequisites listed above, there are a few basic technical requirements to fully engage with the course. 

A desktop computer or laptop (Mac or Windows) with a modern web browser – The MIST platform will work on a smartphone or tablet, but for the full experience, a computer is recommended.  

Access to a DAW – As mentioned earlier, any professional DAW will be more than capable of meeting the requirements for the course. These include Logic Pro, Pro Tools, Ableton Live, FL Studio, Cubase, Nuendo, Reaper, Studio One, etc.  

A reliable internet connection – You’ll need a good internet connection to watch the instructional videos and access the learning materials. This is also vital for the weekly online classes, which happen over Zoom. 

Microphone and video camera – While not essential, these are good to have for engagement with the online classes and 1-2-1 tutorials. 

Studio monitors and/or good quality headphones – As the course is focused heavily on developing critical listening skills, the better your audio monitoring set-up, the more confident you can be in what you’re hearing. Again, this is not essential, but having good monitoring will greatly improve your experience of the course. 

Unsure? Get in touch with us!

If you have any questions about our course prerequisites, please get in touch with us via email at hello@themist.uk. We can help you to get a sense of your skills and knowledge level relative to the course and, if needed, point you towards useful resources to help gain a better understanding of the fundamentals before the course begins.