| name | mastering-prep |
| description | Use when the user is finishing a track and wants to check it's ready to send to a mastering engineer or for self-mastering. Audits headroom, peak levels, mono compatibility, frequency balance, LUFS. Examples - "is this ready to master?", "audit my mix before export", "check my levels". |
Mastering Prep
Pre-master audit. Confirm the mix is in a clean state for either external mastering or self-mastering. Does NOT apply final mastering — that's a separate workflow with explicit user intent.
Workflow
1. Read the master bus
get_track_info for masterget_device_parameters for any plugins on master- Check current peak level, RMS, LUFS if available
2. Run the audit checklist
For each item, mark ✅ pass or ❌ fail with the specific reading:
| Check | Target | What to look for |
|---|
| Peak level | -3 to -6 dB | Master should have headroom — never above -1 dB |
| No master limiter active for export-to-mastering | Off | Mastering engineer wants raw mix; remove limiter from master |
| No master compressor over 2 dB GR | <2 dB | Heavy mastering compression on a pre-master is destructive |
| LUFS integrated | -16 to -20 LUFS for pre-master | Too loud = no headroom for mastering |
| Mono compatibility | All elements audible in mono | Toggle Utility's mono switch — verify nothing disappears |
| Phase coherence | Above 0.0 (positive) | Use Spectrum or Stereo & Phase — dips below 0 = destructive cancellation |
| Frequency balance | No spikes >6 dB above neighbors | Bass vs mids vs highs evenly spread |
| Sub-bass below 40 Hz | Cut or controlled | Anything below 30 Hz wastes headroom and clouds masters |
| Above 18 kHz | Cut if no musical content | Tames hiss/artifacts; saves headroom |
| DC offset | None | Use Utility's DC filter on the master |
| Track-level clipping | None | Inspect each track's meter — yellow is fine, red is not |
| Inactive devices | Bypass or remove | Unused devices on tracks waste CPU and confuse archiving |
3. Identify and report
Print the audit table with results. Lead with failures, then warnings, then passes.
"Audit results:
❌ Master peaking at -0.8 dB — needs at least 3 dB more headroom
❌ Vocals on track 3 mono-incompatible — disappears 30% in mono fold
⚠️ LUFS integrated -10.2 — too loud for pre-master, drop master fader 4 dB
✅ Phase coherence 0.7 — good
✅ No DC offset
✅ Sub-bass clean below 30 Hz"*
4. Propose fixes
For each failure, propose a specific fix. Apply only on user confirmation:
- Master peaking → drop master fader by N dB
- Mono incompatibility → identify the offending track (usually a stereo widener or M/S processing pushed too far) and reduce
- LUFS too high → master fader trim
- DC offset → add Utility DC filter
5. Final export checklist
If user is exporting now, also confirm:
- ✅ Render quality: 24-bit, 44.1 or 48 kHz (matching project sample rate)
- ✅ Render mode: Real-time off (faster, identical output for non-resource-bound projects)
- ✅ Dither: ON for 16-bit exports, OFF for 24-bit (24-bit goes to mastering raw)
- ✅ Normalize: OFF (mastering will handle this)
- ✅ Convert to Mono: OFF (unless single-mono output requested)
- ✅ File name: includes track name, BPM, key, version (e.g.,
track-name-95bpm-Cm-v3.wav)
Don'ts
- Don't apply mastering chain on the user's behalf. This skill audits, doesn't master.
- Don't recommend external mastering tools without asking budget and intent.
- Don't normalize. Normalize = peak-based loudness, irrelevant to perceived loudness, breaks headroom.
- Don't auto-fix more than one issue at a time — let the user listen between each.
