Diagnose and fix this common mixing problem — with specific, actionable steps.
Your mix should be significantly quieter than the final mastered track. The whole point of mastering is to raise loudness to the target level while maintaining dynamics and quality. If your mix is already at the final loudness, the mastering engineer has nothing to work with — they can only make it worse. The ideal pre-master mix integrates at -20 to -14 LUFS, depending on genre and how aggressively you've compressed individual elements.
For most modern music, -18 to -14 LUFS is a good target range. This gives the mastering engineer 4–10 dB of loudness gain to work with, which is the sweet spot for a competitive master. If your mix is already at -8 LUFS, it's already been mastered — you just did it badly on the mix bus.
Peak level is separate from loudness. Your mix should peak no higher than -3 dBFS, and ideally around -6 dBFS. This gives the mastering engineer clean headroom to apply EQ, compression, and limiting without clipping. True peak (inter-sample peak) should also be below -1 dBTP to ensure no clipping occurs after encoding to lossy formats.
If your mix peaks at 0 dBFS, you're clipping. Even if it doesn't sound clipped, inter-sample peaks may be exceeding 0 dBFS, creating distortion that you can't hear on your monitors but will be audible on better systems. Always leave headroom.
There's a misconception that a louder, more compressed mix will result in a louder master. The opposite is true. A dynamic mix with good headroom gives the mastering engineer the flexibility to apply loudness processing optimally. An already-limited mix constrains their options — they can't add dynamics back, and further limiting sounds worse.
Mix at a comfortable monitoring level. Don't put a limiter on your master bus during mixing — or if you do, use it transparently with no more than 1–2 dB of reduction. Let the mastering stage handle loudness. Use a LUFS checker to verify your integrated loudness and peak level before bouncing. MixDiagnose can analyze your mix and tell you if it's in the right range for mastering.
While -18 to -14 LUFS is a general target, genre matters. Electronic, hip-hop, and modern pop mixes are often delivered at -14 to -12 LUFS because these genres are expected to be loud. The mastering engineer has less loudness gain to apply, but the mix is already in the competitive range. Rock and metal often come in at -16 to -14 LUFS. Jazz, classical, and acoustic may be as quiet as -20 to -18 LUFS, preserving dynamics for the mastering stage to enhance.
The mastering engineer can always make a quiet mix louder, but they can't add dynamics back to an over-compressed mix. When in doubt, err on the quieter, more dynamic side. A mix at -18 LUFS with good crest factor gives the mastering engineer maximum flexibility.
Upload your track and get an instant, detailed mix diagnosis with specific fixes — free.
Analyze My Mix Free →