Audio Mixing & Mastering

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part of Audio Production · tier 2 · 0 pieces of work carry it · 3 crafts it is confused with

The craft, and who hires it

Hired for audio mixing & mastering / audio post — the final mix on films and spots, loudness-spec deliverables across broadcast and platform cuts, and remastering existing audio; buyers ask for it as 'the mix' or audio finishing.

The finishing craft of the soundtrack — mixing (balancing voice, music, and effects into one coherent whole) and mastering (final level, EQ, and loudness delivery of the finished audio). The audio-post stage that makes all the sonic elements sit together for broadcast, cinema, and social delivery.

Tag it when…

Tag on credit evidence (mix engineer, audio post facility, mastering credit) or when the finished mix is itself the demonstrable craft — e.g. a complex soundtrack where VO, score, and designed effects are audibly balanced into a coherent, dynamic whole.

Never tag it when…

Never tag for CREATING the sonic elements — designed effects go to Sound Design, the written score to Music Composition, the produced track to Music Production; this leaf is the balancing/finishing of elements that already exist. Never tag every professionally produced video by default — reserve it for explicit credit evidence or a mix that is itself the showcase. Picture-side finishing (editing, color grading) goes to Post-Production leaves and VFX/compositing to the VFX disciplines.

Easily mistaken for 3 other crafts

Every other page suggests neighbours by similarity. This one navigates by difference: each line names the craft this is confused with, and the rule for telling them apart.

• audio production audio engineering — Engineering CAPTURES sound (recording sessions, signal chain); Mixing & Mastering FINISHES it (balance, level, delivery).
• audio visual elements sound design — Sound Design creates the elements; Mixing & Mastering blends and polishes them.
• audio production music production — Producing the music track is Music Production; mixing the piece's final combined soundtrack is this leaf. A track's own mix rides Music Production unless separately credited.

At what size it applies

Asset grain in practice (§3 IS-test): mix and master apply to the whole item's soundtrack, so this is an asset tag on evidence — or a credit-graph claim (content_credit). A moment tag is almost never correct for a finishing craft.

Where to look next

• The whole services tree — the services index.
• Every other vocabulary — the vocabulary index.
• How work gets credited to a craft — the entities chapter.