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5 Great Mastering Apps for Hip Hop

These must-have Apps will make you sound like a pro

LiFTED | Sherrie Yip | 4 Oct 2022


The best tracks don’t just happen because of a great beat, dope rhyme, and a sick flow. They say it takes a village to raise a child, and the same is true if you want to create a fire track. You also need a talented producer or engineer who can mix - and even then you’re not done. The cherry on top is the mastering, which creates the final EQ on the track and makes it jump out of the speakers or headphones as the case may be.

If you’re mixing at a home studio, then you need to be up on these mastering apps. Although mixing may be the most important aspect in creating a track, mastering apps are the real deal for high-quality recordings. Here are some high-level, must-have mastering apps to sound pro even at home studios.

BANDLAB

Bandlab

If you’re going for instant mastering on a budget, BandLab is definitely the best option. Supporting both audio and video format, BandLab offers mastering speeds of almost 10x faster than other mastering apps and provides four types of set mastering styles - universal, fire, clarity, tape. A good choice to start with!

Fee: Free


LANDR

LANDR

As one of the major cloud mastering apps in the music industry, LANDR is renowned for its superior sound quality and low price. For only US$12.50 per month, LANDR offers one of the most useful mastering tool boxes, including unlimited mp3 masters, 20 sample credits, amazing plug-ins and VSTs, and unlimited distribution.

Fee: US$12.50/month for 1-year plan, US$19.99/month for 1-month plan


CLOUDBOUNCE

Cloudbounce

Another lightning-fast mastering app with high quality is Cloudbounce. With its AI technology, Cloudbounce offers a variety of incredible features, such as unlimited WAV, AIFF, FLAC, MP3, OGG masters and loudness control. You can export to any format and it has reference mastering to make your track sound like any track you provide. Although a bit pricey, the various functions here are definitely enough to make your tracks really knock hard.

Fee: US$199.99/lifetime

MUSIC GATEWAY

Music Gateway

Another free option if you’re going for a convenient choice is Music Gateway. Despite its three-in-one design and low budget, Music Gateway still preserves the sound quality and signature of the piece, boosting the soundtrack to its highest quality. Sometimes [especially for beginners] set sounds are the best way to understand the differences between EQ-ing a track, and which elements get highlighted. Music Gateway is a great starter app for understanding mastering.

Fee: Free

MASTERING BOX

MasteringBOX

If Cloudbounce is a bit too pricey, then the fast and easy MasteringBOX could be a good choice for newbies. Even with no budget, MasteringBOX offers the most instant and detailed mastering effects to each audio file, including analysis and process on improving soundtrack quality with the powerful Loudness Control feature. Sometimes all your track really needs is compression and power to sound like it has been mastered like a pro.

Fee: Free