Its been a while since I last mastered a song but to be honest it really depends on the mix.
What I do is listen to it first to get the "vibe" just like someone who enjoys that band or music. Home made/smaller projects tend to sound more like live listening experiences so I don't want to treat them like a song thats ment to sell a lot
Usually effort is (beside basic freq. balance which is only for balance not shaping) to make it sound deeper and bigger, more than once I edited the chorus parts gain to give a bigger punch musically when needed. Things like hiss, roomy sound always stays as is...I almost never compress but I do clip for level if needed. It's all about the musical flow really, if the song is good people will enjoy it whether its mastered or not (if the mix isn't a complete disaster, which also happens a lot
)
The studio/bigger production songs I dealt with usually were denser mixes. Its a habbit the producers check them on laptop speakers
so process is simply about loudness which sadly defined who was the better mastering engineer
Incase anyone doesn't know, achieving loudness has its tricks which are usually kept secret but basicly its about filtering, compressing...destroying something and then re-shaping it to as if it was ment to be heard that way.
When I was a beginner, since I listened so much to the loud mastering when in recording or mixing stage I tried to achieve that sound in detail which is simply impossible so it sounded terrible. After making that mistake then I realized how things should be done. Still today this is the main reason beginners make so much mistakes, they work less on recording stage and more on mixing which should be the other way around to achieve the best sound that music deserves. Its really about not fixing what isn't broken
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