Master¶

Stage: Produce → Master

Mastering is the final production phase. The rough cut arrives as a produced show with layouts, graphics, and transitions already in place. The mastering editor polishes — fixing imperfections, balancing audio, color correcting, trimming dead air, and exporting to final deliverable formats.

Mastering should be fast because the rough cut did the heavy lifting. If mastering takes longer than the rough cut, something went wrong upstream.

What Mastering Produces¶

Deliverable	Format	Specs	Purpose
Mastered horizontal video	MP4 (H.264/H.265)	1920×1080, 30fps	YouTube, website, podcast video
Mastered vertical video	MP4 (H.264/H.265)	1080×1920, 30fps	Reels, Shorts, TikTok, vertical social
Mastered podcast audio	MP3 or WAV	48kHz, stereo, -16 LUFS	Apple Podcasts, Spotify, RSS distribution
Mastered clips (optional)	MP4	H/V variants per clip	Social distribution

Mastering Patterns¶

Pattern	What It Covers	Score
Video Mastering Standard	Final edit, color, pacing, and export for horizontal + vertical video	5
Audio Mastering Standard	Loudness, noise reduction, EQ, and export for podcast audio	5
Export Specifications	Platform-specific export settings for every distribution target	4

Mastering Tools¶

Video Editing / NLE¶

Tool	Best For	Price	Platform
DaVinci Resolve	Full mastering: edit, color, audio, effects. Industry standard for color grading.	Free / $295 (Studio)	Win, Mac, Linux
Adobe Premiere Pro	Established NLE with broad plugin ecosystem	$22.99/mo	Win, Mac
Final Cut Pro	Fast rendering, native Mac optimization	$299.99 (one-time)	Mac only
CapCut (Desktop)	Fast, simple edits with good auto-caption support	Free	Win, Mac
Descript	Transcript-based editing, filler word removal, studio sound	$24/mo+	Win, Mac

Audio Processing¶

Tool	Best For	Price	Platform
DaVinci Resolve Fairlight	Integrated audio mastering within the NLE	Included in Resolve	Win, Mac, Linux
Adobe Audition	Dedicated audio cleanup, noise reduction, mastering	Included with Premiere	Win, Mac
Descript Studio Sound	One-click audio cleanup and leveling	Included with Descript	Win, Mac
Auphonic	Automated loudness normalization, noise reduction, leveling	Free (2hrs/mo) / $11/mo	Web
iZotope RX	Professional noise reduction, de-reverb, de-click	$129+	Win, Mac

Auto-Captioning¶

Tool	Best For	Price
CapCut	Fast auto-captions with style templates	Free
Descript	Transcript-based captions with word-level timing	$24/mo+
Premiere Pro (Speech to Text)	Native captioning within Adobe ecosystem	Included
DaVinci Resolve (Subtitle tools)	SRT import/export, manual and auto	Included

Mastering Workflow¶

Rough Cut (H + V) arrives
    │
    ├─→ Video Master
    │     ├─ Trim dead air / pauses
    │     ├─ Fix any layout errors from rough cut
    │     ├─ Color correction / grading
    │     ├─ Add burned-in captions (vertical version)
    │     ├─ Export horizontal master (1920×1080)
    │     └─ Export vertical master (1080×1920)
    │
    ├─→ Audio Master
    │     ├─ Noise reduction
    │     ├─ EQ and compression
    │     ├─ Loudness normalization (-16 LUFS)
    │     ├─ Remove filler words (optional)
    │     └─ Export podcast audio (MP3/WAV)
    │
    └─→ Clip Extraction (optional)
          ├─ Identify clip moments (Hot Take, Golden Nugget, etc.)
          ├─ Export H + V clip variants
          └─ Add burned-in captions to clips

Quality Bar¶

Video: No visible compression artifacts, consistent color, smooth transitions
Audio: Loudness at -16 LUFS (±1), noise floor below -50dB, no clipping
Captions: Burned-in captions on all vertical video (80%+ watched without sound)
Sync: Audio and video perfectly synced across all exports
Formats: All exports match platform-specific specs (see Export Specifications)
Turnaround: Mastering should take less time than the rough cut. Target: same day or next day.