eMastered vs Echo Forte
Looking for aneMastered alternative?
I went to master one of my own tracks through eMastered, so I could put it next to ours in a fair comparison. I got as far as the download.
You can upload and you can listen. To actually get the file, you pick a plan. The cheapest one is $39 a month. There’s no option to just buy the master.
That’s not a comment on how it sounds. It’s a description of how it’s sold. If you’re reading this, that’s probably why you’re here.
What it costs to get one master
| Echo Forte | eMastered Studio | |
|---|---|---|
| One track | $10 | Not sold separately |
| Cheapest way to get a file | $10, once | $39, one month, then cancel |
| Yearly, paid upfront | Not needed | $108 |
| Yearly, billed monthly | Not needed | $19/mo, 12 month commitment |
| Hear it before you pay | Four masters, free | Preview only. Subscribe to download. |
| Account required | No | Yes |
| Ongoing commitment | None | Until you cancel |
Every Echo Forte price is on the pricing page.
Ten dollars for the master. Or thirty-nine for a month you probably won’t use again.
In fairness
You can cancel after a month. $39 gets you unlimited masters for thirty days, and if you’ve got four tracks ready to go at once, that’s decent value. There’s also a refund window: money back within 14 days if you’ve made fewer than four downloads.
And $39 isn’t only mastering. Studio bundles distribution, stem separation, a sample library and their synth. If you want all of that, this is the wrong comparison to be reading.
If you release a lot, the maths turns. $108 a year breaks even against us at 11 tracks. Past that they’re cheaper per master. If you’re finishing more than 11 tracks a year and you’d use the rest of the bundle, subscribe to them. I’d rather say that than have you buy from me and regret it.
What I’d say is this. Most producers finish three or four tracks a year, not eleven. And a subscription you have to remember to cancel is a different thing to a price.
Where the maths turns
| Tracks per year | Echo Forte | eMastered yearly |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | $10 | $108 |
| 4 | $40 | $108 |
| 8 | $80 | $108 |
| 11 | $110 | $108 |
| 30 | $300 | $108 |
Hear the difference
Fumble
Club / house · same premaster sent to every service
Native loudness: exactly what each service delivers
Measured on this exact excerpt. Playing at each service's delivered level.
LANDR and BandLab are trademarks of their respective owners, who are not affiliated with Echo Forte and do not endorse this comparison. Masters generated from the identical premaster using each service’s standard settings.
There’s no eMastered master in this comparison. To download one I’d have had to take out a subscription, and I wasn’t going to start a monthly plan to write a page. LANDR and BandLab are here, same premaster, level matched, so you can still judge with your ears.
Open the full comparison pageWhat you get for ten dollars
- Four different masters, not one algorithm’s guess
- Free previews, so you hear every one before you pay
- No account and no card to listen
- A loudness and dynamics report with every master
- Presets tuned by a producer with two decades of records, against human reference masters
- A real engineer available if the automated master isn’t right
Which one you should use
Use eMastered if you release more than 11 tracks a year and you want the distribution, stem separation and synth that come with it.
Use Echo Forte if you release occasionally, want to hear the master before you pay for it, don’t want another subscription to cancel, or want the option of putting a human engineer on the track.
FAQ
Can you use eMastered without a subscription?
No. Previews are free, but downloading a finished master requires a paid Studio plan. As at 5 August 2026 the cheapest is $39 per month.
How much does eMastered cost per song?
There is no per song price. The cheapest route to a single master is one month of Studio at $39, or $108 for a year paid upfront.
What is the cheapest way to master one track?
A per track service. Echo Forte is $10 for one master with no subscription and no account, and you hear four versions free before paying.
Is automated mastering as good as a human engineer?
For most finished mixes it gets close enough to release. Echo Forte presets are tuned against human reference masters by a producer with two decades of records, and a human engineer is available if the automated master is not right.
Hear your master free
No account. No card. Four masters in about a minute.
Start a mastereMastered is a trademark of its respective owner, which is not affiliated with Echo Forte and does not endorse this comparison. Pricing accurate as at 5 August 2026. Check emastered.com for current rates.