Can anyone tell me what mixing and mastering means (music)?

Hi.

Mixing is from the tracks you have to make a song or track – so all the changes you take on the tracks to have a finished song/track.

So e.g.

• what traces are there from the available?
• how loud I make the individual tracks and parts of the song
• Can I improve or change the sound of some traces through effects and equalizing?
• How do I organize the music spatially in the stereo field?
• Do I have to cut out disturbing frequencies or noises or filter out?
• Do I add your own small elements/tracks to change/improve sound?

The mastering is then about to make a final check before the track is pressed or released in the finished form, i.e., about the creation of the master.

Here we look at the sound image of the mixing result again and pay particular attention to compatibility with various real playback conditions:

• Is the sound picture balanced or too bright/too blunt?
• How can I set up the sound image so that it can be set up on various systems, headphones, mono etc. does it also function reliably instead of being reproduced distorted on certain devices, for example, because you do not hear certain elements or much too loud?
• How loud I do the song and are the songs compatible on a release in volume and sound enough

This can in practice overlap both or be made by the same person. In mastering, you often rely on plugins, visualization of the frequency spectrum or relatively simple controls with poorer, more primitive audio systems, as well as on work already done before during mixing, such as a mixture in the bass range that is generally compatible with many conditions.