RECORDING Techniques – Mastering a Dolby Atmos Project

I’m a big fan of mastering engineers—most of the commercial CDs and albums I’ve worked on over the past 30 years have passed through the experienced and expert ears of a mastering engineer.

I rely on them for two key reasons. First, the technical side of preparing a project for commercial release—embedding ISRC codes (useful for tracking royalties when your song is played), CD-Text (allowing compatible players to display artist and song titles), PQ coding (which defines track start and end points) and the creation of a production-ready DDP file—is more efficiently handled by a mastering engineer.

Equally important, the mastering engineer ensures that the tracks on an album sound like a cohesive whole rather than a disparate collection of songs. This is achieved through a combination of EQ, compression, limiting, and, when needed, subtle adjustments to the stereo field. The goal is for each song to sound its best both on its own and in the context of the full album. The mastering engineer will also fine-tune the spacing between tracks to ensure smooth, intentional transitions.