Mixing and mastering a track or album

Mixing is generally a process that involves putting together all the recorded channels into one audio recording.How you mix a track often depends upon the genre of music you are trying to mix because it takes an amount of knowledge about the structure of certain music (for example you can't just  "hide" the kicks and the snares  among everything else when mixing a hip hop track,or letting those drums go crazy on a rock track).Mixing involves the use of various tools that will actually sometimes filter out unwanted frequencies or lower the volume of certain channels within the mix.The most important thing when creating a track is: IF YOU DIDN'T MIX THE TRACK PROPERLY YOU CAN'T MASTER IT PROPERLY.Clipping of a whole mix  is out of the question,clipping within a certain channel could be tolerated.
You could allow yourself certain amount of freedom though.Whether you want punch or subtlety in your track it all depends upon your view of the track.

Mastering is a part of post-production and it also includes the use of tools like limiters,equalizers,compressors etc. to build up a certain level of technical development within a track and getting it ready for a CD or LP.
Mastering is a final stage in producing and it requires an individual that is capable to determine which parts of a track or album are noisy,squeaky,too loud,too quiet etc.

Nowadays when the audio domain almost completely submerged with the digital domain it is much easier ,it takes less time and resources to make music and process it for recording,although  there is nothing like a professional recording studio dedicated to the cause.

Good day,ladies and gents

                               Music production
 Often when people hear a DJ playing that new tune,they have no idea whatsoever who the hell took time to cook that new hype everybody is crazy about.
Yeah!That's right. The wizard of Oz behind all that fat stuff you hear is the PRODUCER.It takes time,knowledge,imagination and skill as well as some good tools to make a kick-ass tune,and then every tune or a song or a project has its own target audience.
There are numerous factors that define a "good song". Often those factors are not producer dependable,but it is the job of a producer to get around certain obstacles when working on a project.Maybe the most important job that a producer does (except for making a song  arrangement) is making it acceptable for a wide circle of listeners as well as the target audience by  using a set of written and non-written commercial and technical rules,thus providing the best quality of sound depending upon the music genre.