Why master your type beats before uploading them
On YouTube, BeatStars and every beat store, artists decide in the first ten seconds of a type beat. A beat that sounds quieter or duller than the one before it loses, even if the idea is better. Mastering your beats gives every preview the same loudness and polish as the beats artists are comparing it with.
Our free beat mastering does it in about a minute: upload the bounce, pick a style and a loudness, compare before and after and download a 24-bit WAV. No sign-up, no watermark.
Inside the beat mastering chain
While the progress bar runs, your beat goes through eight stages, each one aimed at what usually holds beats back: too much sub, drums that don't punch and previews that sound quieter than the competition.
- Gain staging. Every bounce starts from the same working level, whether you exported it at −20 dBFS or slammed it into the red.
- Sub control. Rumble under 30 Hz goes, so the 808 keeps its weight without wasting headroom on frequencies nobody hears.
- Four-band tone shaping. Low end, mud, presence and top move with the style you pick: Warm leans into the 808, Bright brings hi-hats and melodies forward.
- Slow-attack compression. At 2:1, the kick and snare hit first and the compressor reacts after them, so the groove holds together without losing punch.
- Centered low end. Below 150 Hz the beat goes mono: the 808 stays in the middle on phone speakers and on club systems alike.
- Wider top. Pads, melodies and hats spread out a touch above the low end.
- Loudness with a true-peak ceiling. The beat is pushed to your chosen LUFS, and an oversampled limiter keeps intersample peaks below −1 dBTP, so YouTube and store encoders don't add distortion.
- Dithered 24-bit WAV. Ready for the MP3 lease, the WAV lease or your preview video.
How loud should a beat be?
Beats are usually mastered louder than finished songs, because the preview has to hit from the first bar. Most guides for beat-store previews and type beat videos land between −8 and −10 LUFS. Go much further and it backfires: a beat crushed to around −6 LUFS loses the attack of its hi-hats and its 808, and streaming platforms turn it down anyway.
- Loud (−9 LUFS) for trap, drill, rage and club beats. It's our default for beats.
- Standard (−11 LUFS) for boom bap, R&B and melodic beats that need some breathing room.
- Streaming (−14 LUFS) if you release the instrumental itself on Spotify or Apple Music, where it will be normalized anyway.
Whatever you pick, peaks stay under −1 dBTP, so the beat doesn't distort when YouTube or a store converts it.
Master the beat, keep the stems clean
The mastered file is for the preview, the MP3 and the WAV lease. The stems (trackouts) are different: the artist's engineer will mix them with the vocals, so they should go out unmastered, without a limiter, exactly as they sit in your session. If you're not sure what goes in each license, see MP3 vs WAV vs trackouts.
How to prepare your beat for mastering
- Sort the kick and the 808 first. If they fight in the mix, mastering makes the fight louder. Our guide on mixing 808s and kick drums shows how to make room for both.
- Keep the master channel clean. No limiter or clipper on it, so the mastering chain has room to work. If the meter touches 0 dB, pull the master fader down.
- Render at full quality. In FL Studio, Ableton or Logic, export a WAV at the project's sample rate, ideally 32-bit float, never an MP3.
- A/B against a beat you rate. Pull up a released beat in the same style, match the volumes and only then judge yours.
For more on getting a cleaner bounce from your DAW, read how to get better sound quality in FL Studio. And if you need drums and 808s to start from, have a look at our sound kits.
Free beat mastering vs. professional beat mix and master
One polishes a finished bounce, the other rebuilds the beat from its parts:
| Free mastering | Professional, by hand | |
|---|---|---|
| Who works on it | A preset chain you steer with style and loudness | An engineer, listening to every element of the beat |
| You upload | One stereo bounce | Every stem: drums, 808, melodies, FX |
| Rebalances the beat | No: levels inside the bounce stay as they are | Yes: kick, 808, melodies and FX are mixed again |
| Use it for | Type beat videos, store previews and well-mixed beats | Beats you want to sell next to top producers |
| Cost | Free, unlimited | Beat Mixdown & Master, per beat |
Frequently asked questions
Is the beat mastering really free?
Yes, with no limit on how many beats you run through it. Every master downloads as a 24-bit WAV, without an account and without a watermark.
Can I master beats that have a voice tag?
Yes. The chain masters the whole bounce, tag included. Master the tagged preview and the untagged WAV separately with the same settings, so both sound the same.
Will anyone hear my unreleased beats?
No. Beats aren’t saved on our side and nobody listens to them: leave the page and the session is cleared.
Can I sell beats mastered with this tool?
Yes. The beat is yours and so is the master: we claim nothing over it. Use it for leases, exclusives, previews or your own releases.
Should I master the stems too?
No. Stems go to the artist’s engineer, who mixes them with the vocals. Send them unmastered, without a limiter on any of them.
Which loudness is best for type beats on YouTube?
Loud (−9 LUFS) for trap and drill, Standard (−11 LUFS) for softer styles. YouTube turns loud uploads down to around −14 LUFS, but a well-mastered loud beat still keeps its punch.
Will mastering fix a muddy 808?
Not on its own. If the 808 and the kick fight for the same space, a louder master makes the clash louder too. Fix it in the mix first: our guide on mixing 808s and kick drums shows how.