PivotPointMusic

This is a tricky topic. First of all, the best approach is to hire a professional mastering engineer and ask if you can shadow him/her while they master your music. They'll show/tell you: 1. tricks that you didn't think to do yourself (multiple levels of A/B monitoring and referencing) 2. where you're making mistakes in your recordings 3. how you can improve your mixes After you get a feel for the process, you can branch out on your own with much better results. My chain is typically: 1. Subtractive EQ (remove any conflicting frequencies - think lower mids) 2. Moderate compression (-2 to -3 dB of fast gain reduction at the peaks) 3. Slight high end boost (newer releases are bright!) 4. Multiband limiter 5. Secret weapon: DeEsser goes last - focusing on reducing the 6K to 8K sibilance. Those are the ugly peaks that make homemade recordings sound brittle/digital.