Thanks a lot for replies. Yes it’s the mastering part that I am on about, the final tweaking after mixing to give the mixdown that little bit extra to make it shine and closer to a commercial release that we hear.

In fact I am just talking about doing one song at a time, as I don't have a whole bunch of songs that I could turn into a CD.

I do have ozone 4 with a lot of presets in it, and I suppose it helps a bit, but still a lot of hit and miss.

1 Just wondering if a song has each track mixed down well, with the proper eq's and other plugins added to each track, does this minimize the need for mastering on the final stereo track) (if its a standalone song not to be put on a CD)

2 As regards the Harmonic Series for each instrument in a song, is it wise mainly to tweak the eq frequencies for a particular instrument's song range i.e. cutting the frequencies of that instrument so that it won't clash with another instrument in the song? I am probably not understanding or asking this right so if you don't understand what I am asking feel free to ignore it.

Gary's tip about playing the finished song on different systems is good, I had thought about that, and maybe even loading a commercial song into the DAW so that I can compare the tonal qualities of it to my song as regards mastering.

Thanks very much for your replies and advice,

Musiclover

Musiclover

My music https://www.youtube.com/user/donegalprideofall

Windows 10 (64bit) M-Audio Fast Track Pro, Band in a Box 2024, Cubase 13, Cakewalk and far too many VST plugins that I probably don't need or will ever use smile