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Mastering · LUFS · true peak

Mastering plug-ins.
Loud, clean, ready for Spotify.

Mastering a beat at home comes down to three things: peak control, loudness that still sounds good after normalisation, and metering you can trust.

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What a mastering plug-in does

A limiter sets a ceiling and raises loudness without letting any peak through — a good one also catches inter-sample (true) peaks. A LUFS meter shows loudness the way Spotify, YouTube and Apple Music measure it. A clipper shaves short peaks before the limiter, and a bus compressor gently glues the mix.

Mastering trap and drill

Gain loudness early: clip drums and 808 by 2–3 dB, control 40–60 Hz and leave about 6 dB of headroom in the mix. On the limiter: −1 dBTP ceiling, oversampling, 2–4 dB of reduction on the loudest hits. A sensible target is −10 to −12 LUFS integrated — Spotify turns everything down to −14 anyway. See −14 LUFS for Spotify.

Watch out for

Mastering won't fix a bad mix. Always compare at matched loudness, measure the whole track, check mono and a phone, and dither when exporting to 16-bit.

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Questions

How many LUFS for Spotify?

Spotify normalises to −14 LUFS integrated. Your master can be louder — it will be turned down. For trap, −10 to −12 LUFS with a −1 dBTP ceiling is a sensible target.

Is a limiter enough?

On a simple beat with a good mix, often yes. It works better if you clip drum and 808 peaks first and leave about 6 dB of headroom.

What true peak should I set?

−1 dBTP for masters up to about −14 LUFS, −2 dBTP for very loud ones. MP3 and AAC encoding raises peaks, so 0 dBTP leaves too little room.

Can I master in the same project as the mix?

Yes, many beatmakers do. Finish the mix with nothing on the master first, then add the mastering chain — otherwise you end up mixing into the limiter.

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