> Weren't people complaining it was over-compressed? That's mixing not mastering! That's not true. Mastering is the process of taking the final output of the

> Weren't people complaining it was over-compressed? That's mixing not mastering! That's not true. Mastering is the process of taking the final output of the master bus and processing it to the final release versions (for the various formats). Depending on where and who does it it can combine many processes: compression, limiting, EQing, stereo widening, bouncing to a tape, etc. It can be a totally functional exercise as well as a creative one. Something that's over-compressed could have had each instrument on each channel over-compressed (if it was mixed on an SSL for example where there's a compressor per channel), or it could have had far too aggressive master-bus compression. So saying it's definitely mixing not mastering is a stretch.