Producer notes
One premaster through three services, aligned to the sample, matched in loudness and measured. Listen for yourself before anyone's marketing gets a vote. From Aden Forté.
Every mastering service on the internet, ours included, tells you it sounds better. Claims are free. So instead of adding another adjective, I sent the same premaster, a club track called Fumble, through Echo Forte, LANDR and BandLab, using each service’s standard settings. Our engine ran the Club preset. LANDR ran Balanced at Medium loudness. BandLab ran its free mastering. No re-runs, no cherry-picking, first result from each.
Louder wins blind tests even when it’s worse, which is exactly how a comparison gets rigged. So every master was trimmed to the identical section and aligned by cross-correlation to within a few milliseconds: flip between them mid-play below and you stay at the same moment of the track with only the master changing. The player opens at delivered loudness, and the level-match toggle plays everything at -16.5 LUFS through playback gain only, files untouched, when you want the rigging removed.
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.
Measured on the exact excerpts above
| Master | Integrated | True peak | Loudness range |
|---|---|---|---|
| Your MixUnmastered premaster | -28.4 LUFS | -12.5 dBTP | 6.8 LU |
| Echo ForteClub preset · $10 | -8.5 LUFS | -1.0 dBTP | 5.2 LU |
| LANDRBalanced · Medium | -10.0 LUFS | -0.3 dBTP | 5.6 LU |
| BandLabFree mastering | -13.8 LUFS | -0.2 dBTP | 4.9 LU |
ffmpeg ebur128, BS.1770 with true-peak metering. Full methodology on the comparison page.
On this track our Club master comes back 1.5 LU louder than LANDR and 5.3 LU louder than BandLab, with loudness range still in the same band as both. Extra level without giving up the track’s travel is the whole job, so that’s the row I’d look at first.
The true peak column has its own story. We hold a -1.0 dBTP ceiling on Club; LANDR and BandLab ride at -0.3 and -0.2. Ceilings that hot leave nothing for the MP3 and AAC encodes every platform applies, which is where crispy top end on streamed masters tends to come from.
BandLab’s result is the cautionary one: 5.3 LU quieter and the lowest loudness range of the three. Quieter and flatter at the same time means the dynamics went missing without buying any level with them.
Start with the low end through the drop: density that stays planted versus pumping that ducks the whole track with the kick. Then the hats and the top of the snare, where over-pushed masters turn bright into brittle. Then flip to Your Mix occasionally to remember where everything started; the premaster peaks at -12.5 dBTP, which is why it sounds so much smaller than all three.
And listen level-matched first. Delivered loudness is fun, and it’s also exactly the trick the loudest master in the room plays on your ears.
One track, one genre, one data point: this page is a method as much as a verdict, and your mix is the comparison that actually matters. Upload it, get four presets back in about a minute, and A/B them level-matched against your original before paying anything. If another service wins on your track, use the other service; you’ll have chosen with your ears either way.
LANDR and BandLab are trademarks of their respective owners, who are not affiliated with Echo Forte. Masters were generated from the identical premaster using each service’s standard settings, unmodified apart from trimming to a common section for side-by-side playback.
Open the full comparison pageThe comparison that matters
Upload a finished stereo mix and compare four producer-tuned masters against your original, free, before you pay a cent.