How to listen to your master:
Just received your master back from your mastering engineer?
Listen as a fan would not a musician or band member. It's all about the listener experience.
How to listen:
Listen on hi-fi speakers not studio monitors, ear buds, or headphones. And lose the subwoofer.
You want to hear how much bass is present on ordinary bookshelf style speakers.
What to listen for:
Balance- are all instruments equally present and easy to hear? Or are there overbearing frequencies in the bass, mid or highs? Overbearing frequencies are the main cause of ear fatigue (A physical experience of annoyance that makes the listener lose attention to the song.)
Headroom- do you have the ability to tweak/boost your EQ to taste or do the speakers overload?
The car stereo test. It is crap. Your car is a nightmare of bad speaker placement, and phase issues waiting to happen. The only way to make something sound perfect in the car is to have the entire song in mono.
Play your master back on continuous loop.
How many times can you listen to it before you find it annoying or lose interest?
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