How long does stem mastering take?

Stem mastering can take anywhere from a couple of days to over a week depending on the number of stems involved. Some mastering studios complete projects within approximately three days.

What does the stem mastering process typically look like?

Stem mastering usually begins with reviewing a rough mix or reference track. Engineers then inspect individual stems, remove artefacts, balance levels, apply reductive EQ, compression, and finalize loudness to match reference tracks.

is my mix good enough for mastering?

Written by B.Russell BSc Hons

Read time: 3 Mins

Last updated: April 05 2026

Summary:

A mix ready for mastering has a few key features; The mix has 3dB to 6dB of headroom for the mastering process. The mix has a mostly balanced frequency spectrum and processes such as EQ and compression have been applied to sculpt the sound, not sit on it.

With that, here's 5 reasons why we would reject a mix for mastering.

1. File errors or inherent issues in the mix.

This can be things such as corrupt files or artefacts left in the mix from the recording or mixing stage. These errors or blemishes cannot be removed during post-production and therefore would face rejection.

2. Clipping or no headroom available.

When a mix arrives to a mastering engineer with clipping already present the file quality is already being degraded with noise and distortion.

To achieve the best possible result from mastering we will ensure headroom is present before starting on the track.

For more information about headroom and how to check for it, head over to What is Headroom in music?

3. over compression.

Similarly to clipping or no headroom, if your compression on your mix is too harsh, you end up squeezing all the life out of your mix.

If you can’t hear how much your compression is sitting on your mix, try exporting the mix and dropping it into your DAW, there you can see how compression is treating your mix.

4. Severe Frequency Imbalance.

Severe frequency imbalance typically occurs when EQ is used as only a tool to add desired frequencies, rather than to assist with removing undesirable frequencies first.

Using EQ to only boost what you want more prominent in the mix causes heavy clashes in certain areas of the mix which degrades the overall quality of the sound beyond the point where mastering can save it.

We see this most commonly when vocals go up against hi hats and the person mixing the track wants super bright and exciting vocals and also very prominent hi hats and we end up with an incredibly harsh top-end with uncontrolled sibilance.

Plugin Recommendation:

Tonal Balance Control by Izotope - This is a brilliant tool to help you understand where your mix sits in comparison to the industry. This plugin should be used on the master bus, not an individual instrument.

5. No vision for the sound.

In very rare cases we would reject a mix if we feel we’re simply not the right fit for it. This only tends to happen with highly experimental sounds with no reference artists or tracks available. If we can’t see the vision for the sound, we’d rather you find someone who can!

Why not check our Mastering Portfolio to sample a range of our sounds, if you're still not sure if your track is a suitable fit for our mastering engineers, drop us a message on the live chat and one of the mastering engineers will pick it up and advise!

If your mix needs a little extra help before mastering you might consider going down the Stem Mastering route, or dialling in a few more mixing revisions before beginning.

Release Mastering

Written by B.Russell,

BSc Hons Music Production, Music Composition, and Songwriting.