Mixing can be considered to be the second step in the process of producing a mono, stereo, or surround sound product. During mixing the separate raw tracks are volume adjusted, equalized, compressed, filtered, leveled, and balanced to produce the desired sound. During mixing special effects such as reverb, panning and delay can be added to the original sound.
What is Mastering?
Mastering is the third and final step just before manufacturing a CD. During mastering the final fine-tuning occurs. The overall gain or volume level is established, noise like pops, clicks, and hiss are removed, and tracks are arrange in final sequence with proper timing between tracks.
What is a .wav file?
The Waveform Audio File Format is commonly referred to as a WAV file because of its filename extension (.wav). A WAV file is an audio format standard developed by IBM and Microsoft for storing a bit stream on computers. Typically it is used to store raw and uncompressed audio in the linear pulse-code modulation (LPCM) format. WAV files are the preferred format for recording, mixing, and mastering audio streams. Although MP3 files can be used for mastering, they are made with a lossy compression process not ideal for mastering. You can play WAV files in Windows 10 by using the default, Windows Media Player. In macOS the default player is iTunes.
AIFF Format
The Audio Interchange File Format is another uncompressed storage format. It was developed by Apple Computers.
MP3 Format
Uncompressed storage formats retain 100% of the original audio quality but take up a lot of space. MP3 is a storage format that compresses the original recording media while retaining most of the quality. It is known as a lossy format because once compressed the original quality cannot be reproduced.