"The perfect mix may need no mastering at all!!", Bob Katz, from his book Mastering Audio.

Bob knows a tiny bit about mastering and this quote is taken from his chapter on Equalization where he gets into lots of details about how to EQ to make the perfect mix.

Theoretically speaking, masternot is completely right. If a mix is perfectly mixed, whereby all of the instruments are sitting in their proper place, each having their own proper dynamic range in relation to other instruments, and each reaching that peak amplitude/gain, then what's the mastering engineer to do?

Granted, this is a theoretically perfect mix, one which rarely if ever occurs in the real world.

masternot, what you need to realize is that the bar has been raised(or perhaps lowered, depending on your side of the fence on the Loudness War) to a new level; and I mean that figuratively and literally. I'd guess that 99.99% of all recordings are mastered by applying the well-adhered to processes to stereo files or stereo songs on tape.

If you think your recordings can compete(and yes, it IS a competition) with others in the same genre without doing the masterig on the final stereo file, then my hat's off to you. You da man!

PS. I've just received the latest issue of Electronic Musician and Bob Katz is interviewed on this issue. He says: "the better the mix the less work the mastering engineer has to do." Adding more credence to masternot's position.

Let's not forget that mastering is about making an album sound it's best, not just a track.

One can have the "perfect" mix that requires little to no processing, as you add more tracks to an album and each need to have a certain consistency of sound in relation to the others, the odds in not needing mastering go down.

I often use the analogy that when recording it's difficult to determine what the overall level and quality a track should be until it's in the mix. Likewise it's difficult to determine what the level and overall quality of a stereo mix should be until you've heard it against others in the album.

Each phase of audio production has it's purpose and shouldn't be ignored.
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Tom Volpicelli
The Mastering House Inc.
http://www.masteringhouse.com
CD Mastering and Media Production Services