The Mastering Show #102 - What IS 'translation' in mastering ?
From The Mastering Show by The Mastering Show Podcast
October 23, 2025 · 30 min
About this episode
This episode discusses the concept of 'translation' in mastering music for various playback systems.
Translation is one of the main goals of mastering - make the music sound great on any platform, and any delivery format. But how is that possible ? How can we optimise the audio to sound great on both a huge PA and crappy earbuds, or via any data-encoded stream, when we don't have any control over those playback systems or streaming platforms ? The answer to this paradox is deceptively simple - and powerful. In this episode I explain the common misconception of what 'translation' is; what the term really means to me, and share three simple suggestions to help you get your music to translate - on any playback system. Full links on our website: www. themasteringshow.com/episode-102 Mentioned in this episode: Leapwing Find out more about Leapwing's plugins Learn to master ! Click HERE to see Ian's courses and mastering resources Mastering Click HERE to work with Ian
People in this episode
Host: Ian
Topics covered
- mastering
- audio translation
- music production
- playback systems
- audio optimization
Keywords
- mastering
- audio translation
- playback systems
- music production
- Leapwing
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: Leapwing
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