If you are interested in learning about mastering, here are some resources for you to explore.
Mastering Audio: The Art and the Science (Third Edition) by Bob Katz is packed with in-depth mastering information.
The Mastering Engineer's Handbook provides a solid outline of the mastering process along with interviews with many legendary mastering engineers.
If you are serious about learning mastering, I recommend the Blake La Grange Mastering Course At mastering.com. It's a lot of work, but at the end of it, you'll be able to master your own songs, and what is more, you'll be at a level where you can be a commercial mastering engineer.
I find the following YouTube channels informative for music production. They do not focus exclusively on mastering, but often have useful mastering tips.
Ear training provides a great foundation for mastering, but it's important to differentiate between ear training tools for musicians, which typically focus on musical intervals, and ear training tools for sound engineers that focus on the frequency spectrum, dynamics, and the stereo field.
I strongly recommend SoundGym for ear training for music production and mastering.
The Crickets Mastering Principal Mastering Engineer, Ross Williams, has achieved the SoundGym Diamond Ears Award, which is the highest ear training award on the SoundGym platform. This places him in the top 2% of SoundGym users.
I highly recommend the following plugins for mastering:
Here are some of the major online automated mastering services. I haven't tried any of them, so I can't comment on them. Prices are as at 1 January 2021.
| Service | Annual Fee | Mastering Fee |
|---|---|---|
| Tunecore | Not Sure | US$9.99 |
| LANDR | US$59 | US$10.99 |
| CloudBounce | US$0 | US$9.90 |
| Bandlab | US$0 (?) | US$0 (?) |
Here's a review of several methods of mastering, including Ozone and online services: