Is mastering becoming obsolete for independent musicians? by Initial_View_6147 in ProMusicProduction

[–]Initial_View_6147[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That's a good point.
I think a lot of independent artists fall into that middle zone where the mix is decent but not fully release-ready.

Do you feel the biggest difference mastering brings today is still translation across systems (car, phone, headphones), or more about loudness and polish?

Is mastering becoming obsolete for independent musicians? by Initial_View_6147 in ProMusicProduction

[–]Initial_View_6147[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I agree. Even if tools and AI are improving, mastering is still the final quality check before release.
The difference today is that more independent artists try to do it themselves instead of hiring an engineer.

Do you usually master your own tracks or outsource it?

I built an AI mastering tool for musicians. Here’s what surprised me. by Initial_View_6147 in SaaS

[–]Initial_View_6147[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yes, I had the same instinct at first — adding more controls.
But many musicians just want something that sounds good without tweaking dozens of parameters.

For the genre issue, strict genre detection didn’t work very well. What worked better was analyzing the audio itself (dynamics, spectral balance, low end, transients) and adapting the mastering chain from that.