• What is mastering?
  
• Defining the goals of mastering
  
• CD mastering of stereo tracks
  

• CD mastering from groups
  
• Time management
  
• Studio acoustics & room acoustics testing and calibration
  

• Choice of speakers & speaker layout
  
• Equipment requirement for mastering
  
• Cabling
  

• Operation system settings
  
• Audio interfaces
  
• Frontend & backend
  

• Our sense of hearing
  
• The Fletcher-Munson curve
  
• Listening strategies
  

• Ear training
  
• Frequency distribution
  
• Metering for mastering

• Loudness and peak levels
  
• What are interleaved sample overs?
  
• Headroom for encoding
  

• Normalization
  
• Judging loudness
  
• Reference values for loudness
  

• PCM - the principle of digital audio
  
• Basics of bit resolution
  
• What is truncation?
  

• Sample rate basics
  
• Sample rate conversion (SRC)
  
• All about dithering
  

• What is jitter?
  
• AES/EBU & S/P-DIF
  
• Wordclock and houseclock
  

• What is DC offset?
  
• ISRC / EAN
  
• Redbook & DAO/TAO

> Phase 1: Preparation

• Batch processing

> Phase 2: Creative sound processing

• Optimizing the best-sounding track
  
• Using the leveler for A/B comparisons
  
• Saving master section settings
  

• PQ editing
  
• Editing CD text & EAN / ISRC
  
• Final master montage
  

• Verification master
  
• Error elimination
  
• Choice of master medium / DDP versus CD-R/CD-ROM
  
• Audio CD report

Chapter III: Creative Sound Processing

• Basic strategies
  
• Order of processing steps
  
• Working with EQs
  

• Fletcher-Munson curve and EQing
  
• Important filter types
  
• Compressors
  

• Typical examples and strategies
  
• Practical editing examples with master section