Album mastering: one loudness across every track
Upload the tracks of an album together and master them as one batch. The loudest track reaches your target, and the quieter tracks keep their place relative to it, so an intro or a ballad does not get lifted to the level of the single.
Why tracks mastered one by one drift apart
If each track is brought to the same loudness on its own, a quiet interlude becomes as loud as the lead single, and the listener hears the album jump from one track to the next. Mastering as a batch keeps the differences the songwriter intended.
How album mode works
- The lab measures the loudness of every track first.
- The loudest track is mastered to your target loudness.
- Each other track gets a target lower by the amount it was quieter in the original. The difference is limited to 8 LU below the target, so a very quiet track is not pushed far down.
- All tracks share the same style and export format.
Album mode needs at least two files. A single upload is mastered on its own.
What album mode does not do
- It does not match the tone of the tracks to each other. Each track is still processed on its own, so a dark ballad and a bright single keep their own balance.
- It does not join the tracks or set gaps and crossfades between them. You get separate files, ready for your sequencing.
- It does not make a quiet track loud. It keeps quiet tracks quieter than the loudest one, as the original intended.
Who it is for
Artists releasing an album or an EP, labels preparing a catalogue batch, and producers finishing a set of tracks for one release. For a compilation from different artists, a shared loudness still helps listeners, but check the tone of each track yourself.
Batch limits
In the lab a batch takes up to 10 tracks and up to 800 MB in total by default. Check your files before you upload, so one oversized file does not hold up the whole batch.
Questions
How is album mode different from mastering tracks one by one?
One by one, every track goes to the same target. In album mode the loudest track goes to the target and the quieter tracks stay quieter by the amount they were in the original.
How many tracks can I upload at once?
Up to 10 tracks and 800 MB in total by default in the lab.
Will the whole album sound like one master?
The loudness is shared, not the tone. Each track keeps its own balance, so compare the tracks side by side and adjust the style per track if one stands out.
Does it work for an EP?
Yes. An EP is the typical case: a few tracks, one style, one loudness.