WHAT IS MASTERING?
Mastering is the final creative step in audio production. At it's most basic level it is simply creating the part (such as a CD-R master disc, or correctly encoded digital audio file) necessary for manufacturers or digital music distributors to make duplicates or replicas of your music.
Beyond this mastering allows the enhancement of your final mixes through the tasteful use of equalization, compression and other processes, so that your audio will sound the best it possibly can, allowing more "impact" and emotional involvement from the listener.
Mastering also allows an album to smoothly flow from one track to another, so that the end listener never feels the need to adjust their volume or tone controls during listening through its entirety, and so that your album can become a cohesive entity in itself and not just a collection of tracks.
Professional mastering allows your mixes to best translate to the widest range of playback systems, so that no matter what device the listener chooses to play your tracks with your music will still sound great.
By having your music mastered in a professional dedicated mastering studio, such as Total Sonic Media, you gain the chance for a fresh perspective on the mixes from an experienced engineer, in a highly accurate and revealing listening environment (so that any processing decisions made will be the right ones) with excellent processors and an ultra-clean signal path (so that any processes done will be made at the highest quality possible).
The end result is that the masters created will be to the exact specifications needed by the replicator - and that the tracks you release will sound the best they possibly can be!