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By Christos “Stos” Tsantilis | MixByStos.com Before you send your track off for mastering, ask yourself: Is my mix truly ready?  Mastering can enhance and finalize a record—but it can’t fix a mix that isn’t there yet. Think of mastering as the clear coat on a car: if the paint underneath isn’t smooth, no polish will make it perfect. Use this professional mix-readiness checklist  to make sure your mix translates and gives your mastering engineer exactly what they need. 1) Ste

Do Acoustic Panels Really Make Mixes Sound Better? By Christos “Stos” Tsantilis | MixByStos.com The short answer: Yes — acoustic panels can make your mixes sound dramatically better. But that’s just the beginning. Panels alone aren’t a magic fix. To truly achieve professional-grade accuracy, you need a complete acoustic strategy designed around your specific room. Why Acoustic Panels Matter When sound waves bounce off untreated walls, ceilings, and floors, they create reflect

What Are the Most Important Acoustic Treatments for a Small Studio? When it comes to designing a small recording or mixing studio, the size of the room often dictates both its strengths and its challenges. Small spaces can be sonically unforgiving, especially in the low-frequency range. The smaller the room, the more pronounced the acoustic issues — standing waves, comb filtering, phase anomalies, and uneven frequency response. Inherently, a small room tends to exaggerate low

Mixing and mastering are two distinct yet equally vital stages in music production. Mixing shapes emotion, balance, and depth within a song — while mastering delivers final loudness, clarity, and translation across all platforms. Learn why separating both stages is key to achieving a truly professional, release-ready record.