All tools Mastering & Loudness

Mastering tools for streaming-friendly masters

Mastering lives in the gap between "this sounds great in my studio" and "this also sounds great on Spotify on a phone in a taxi." These five tools live in that gap. They don't replace a calibrated meter, but they make sure you don't ship a master at –6 dBTP, forget to check the streaming target, or stack EQs in an order that defeats each other.

Multi-Platform

LUFS Loudness Targeter

Enter your integrated LUFS and true peak. The tool shows a pass/fail table for Spotify (−14), Apple Music (−16), YouTube (−14), Amazon (−14), Club/EDM (−8 to −6), CD and broadcast EBU R128 (−23). Recommends how many dB to add or remove and via which stage (master limiter / clipper / multiband).

Unique: surfaces the loudness-war trade-off — your PLR (peak-to-loudness ratio) tells you how much dynamic range you still have to spend.

Flowchart

Mastering Chain Order Picker

Pick a genre and a target medium — the tool generates an ordered mastering chain (EQ → Compression → Saturation → Bus Comp → Limiter etc.) with reasoning per stage. Renders the chain as a signal-flow diagram on canvas, so you see the order, not just read a list.

Unique: explains why the order matters — putting a compressor before EQ shapes the spectrum; putting it after EQ shapes the dynamics. Both are valid, just for different goals.

GR Curve

Compressor Threshold Helper

Set input level, threshold, ratio, knee, attack, release and makeup gain. The tool draws the static transfer curve (input dB → output dB) with the knee drawn in, then animates the gain reduction over time as a synthetic kick or snare hits so you can see what "5 dB of GR" actually looks like.

Unique: presets for vocals, drums, bass and master bus so beginners don't have to guess at the threshold.

Heat Map

EQ Conflict Detector

Drop in two EQ curves (track A and track B). The tool overlays them on a shared frequency axis and shades the conflict regions — bands where both are boosting or one is boosting where the other is cutting. Suggests a give-and-take split ("let A own 200–500 Hz, let B own 2–6 kHz").

Unique: shows a cumulative frequency-balance bar (low / low-mid / mid / high-mid / high energy) so you can spot masking problems that aren't obvious in solo.

Parametric

Headphone EQ Compensation

17 popular headphone models with their published measurement character. Pick your cans and a target tonality (Harman / Diffuse-field / Bass-boost / Reference) and the tool generates a 5-band parametric EQ correction you can paste into any parametric EQ.

Unique: honest disclaimer that compensation ≠ fixing a bad room. Headphone correction helps but doesn't substitute for monitoring on a calibrated speaker.

A typical mastering workflow

1. Listen on multiple systems, then jump to Headphone EQ Compensation if your main reference is a known-bias headphone.
2. Build the chain in Chain Order Picker — confirm you haven't accidentally put a saturator before your subtractive EQ.
3. Set the bus compressor in Compressor Threshold using the master-bus preset.
4. Check the spectral shape with EQ Conflict Detector against a reference.
5. Final loudness pass via LUFS Targeter — pick your target platform, confirm you're not crushing dynamics to hit it.

FAQ

What LUFS should I actually aim for in 2026?

For streaming, −14 LUFS integrated is the safe default (Spotify, YouTube, Amazon). Apple Music targets −16. For club DJ play, −8 to −6 is conventional but at the cost of dynamic range. For broadcast (TV, radio), EBU R128 requires −23 LUFS. The Targeter shows all of these and tells you which stage to use to hit your number without crushing.

Why does my master sound duller on Spotify than in my DAW?

If your master is significantly louder than −14 LUFS, Spotify applies a normalisation attenuator that reduces overall level. The relative tonal balance doesn't change, but the reduced level can make the high end feel less present. The Targeter helps you choose a master that doesn't trigger heavy attenuation.

Does the EQ Conflict Detector work for the same track vs a reference?

Yes — that's one of its better uses. Compare your EQ curve against a reference track's curve to spot frequency ranges where you're way off (e.g. your master has 5 dB less energy at 4 kHz than the reference). It's a directional tool, not a measurement.

Can I trust these tools instead of a real LUFS meter?

No. The Targeter takes the LUFS number you've already measured (e.g. with Youlean, MLoudnessAnalyzer, or your DAW's built-in meter) and maps it to platforms. You still need a real BS.1770-compliant meter to measure it in the first place. The Targeter is the planning step, not the measurement step.