[Ben Jenssen]

Schools of thought in a mix…
I can't see why anyone would think; I'd better do this or this because it's going to get mastered. It makes no sense, 'cause as Janne says; mastering is about "translation". You mix to make it sound good.

I have about four decades of recordings that I made on anything from two-track reel-to-reel and four-track cassettes, via 2" reels, DATs and adats, to modern digital and they all still sound pretty good. Only "mastering" was usually a bit of volume and fade outs, things like that. I put it down to having relatively good monitoring along the way.

Closest I came to using a professional mastering was probably when my band and I made a vinyl single in '89, and we had no influence over it. Mastering in the old sense; translating from one medium to another.

I had a lively semi-pro studio for over a decade, mind you, recording live bands and having a lot of fun, but I never needed "mastering". Just a little level and limit, and my clients were mostly happy with their CDR copies.