Mastering? It depends… on what? Well, that's the question. Mastering is the art of optimizing a track for the delivery medium. Radio, soundbed, surround, theater, CD, AV, KLOVE… each has its own requirements.

Mastering is often confused with mixing but it is a separate process. Sometimes, I have to remix to get a good Master, however.

If you submit your tracks to an online service, you'll get compression, bass compensation (can be either boos or cut) plus some bandpass filtering including a de-esser to try to optimize according to some formula.

It will sound different but definitely no substitute for ears and knowledge. Those are the only tools that have ever really counted. Yes, I know that marketing departments everywhere cringe at that statement but it's true.

Ozone is a good suite of basic tools. Nectar isn't bad either.

BIAB 2024 Audiophile Mac
24Core/60CoreGPU M2 MacStudioUltra/8TB/192GB Sequoia, M1 MBAir, 2012 MBP
Digital Performer11, LogicPro, Finale27/Dorico/Encore/SmartScorePro64/Notion6 /Overture5