QUANTARA

Load your song

Drag a WAV or MP3 into the box at the top. Use the best-quality file you have — a WAV beats an MP3, because an MP3 has already thrown information away.
Leave headroom if you can: a mix that peaks around −6 dB gives the processing room to work. If yours is already squashed to the ceiling, mastering can do less for it.
Quantara measures your track and shows how loud it currently is. Nothing has been changed yet.

Choose where the song is going

Pick a platform target — Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube, a club system, and so on. Each one plays music back at a set loudness, so each needs a different level.
Why this matters: making a song louder than the platform wants does not make it louder for the listener. Spotify simply turns it back down — and you have given up punch and dynamics for nothing. Matching the target is how you stay competitive and keep the life in the music.
Not sure? Spotify is the safest default; it suits almost every streaming release.

Choose your genre

This sets every control and the 31-band equaliser to a sensible starting point for that style — more low end for trap, a cleaner midrange for metal, a gentler touch for classical.
It is a starting point, not a verdict. A preset does not know what your particular song needs; it only puts you in the right neighbourhood. If your genre is not listed, pick the closest one.

Press Play and listen

You are now hearing the processed version, live. Change anything — target, genre, any slider — and it updates while the music keeps playing.
The single most useful button is Bypass. It switches between your original and the mastered version at a matched level, so you compare the sound rather than the volume. If the mastered version does not clearly sound better, you have gone too far. Ease off.
Watch the VU meter: green means you are on target, red means something is wrong — and it tells you which.

Check, then export

Press Preview Master to hear the exact file you are about to download — not an approximation, the real thing.
Press Mono once. Phones, laptops and club systems often collapse stereo to mono, and problems that hide in stereo become obvious there. If the sound thins out badly, reduce Width.
Then export. WAV for distributors and anything important; MP3 only for quick sharing.

High-pass — removes rumble below the note range: air conditioning, footsteps, microphone handling. Nothing musical lives down there. Raise it if the low end feels cloudy; leave it low for bass-driven music.

Sub — the weight you feel more than hear. More for hip-hop, trap and electronic; less for acoustic and classical. Too much turns to mush on small speakers.

Low-mid — the “mud” control, around 300 Hz. Almost every instrument crowds this area. Cutting a little is the most reliable way to make a mix sound clearer. This is the one to try first when something sounds boxy.

Presence — where vocals and guitars cut through. Raise it if the singer feels buried. Too much becomes harsh and tiring after a minute.

Air — the top-end sheen that makes a record sound expensive. A little goes a long way; too much brings out sibilance and cymbal splash.

Width — how far the sound spreads left and right. Wider feels bigger on headphones but can fall apart in mono. Always check with the Mono button before trusting it.

Compression — evens out loud and quiet moments so the track feels consistent and glued together. Push it too far and the music stops breathing: everything sits at one level and gets boring.

Saturation — gentle warmth borrowed from analogue tape and valves. Adds richness and makes a track feel louder without raising the level. Small amounts only.

Ceiling — the hard limit peaks may not cross. Leave it at −1 dB. It exists because streaming services convert your file to a compressed format, and that conversion can push peaks slightly higher — this reserve keeps that from distorting.

LUFS — how loud something actually sounds to a person, rather than what a meter peak says. It is what streaming services measure. Lower numbers are quieter: −14 is typical for Spotify, −8 is club-loud.

True peak (dBTP) — the real highest point of the waveform, including peaks that appear only after conversion to MP3 or AAC. Staying under −1 dBTP keeps those from distorting.

Dynamic range — the distance between the quiet and loud parts. Squash it away and the track measures loud but sounds flat and tiring.

Headroom — unused space below the maximum. Room for the mastering to work in.

Stems — a song split back into separate parts (vocals, drums, bass). Useful for remixes and practice.

“It sounds quieter than commercial songs.” Check the VU meter. If you are on target, you are correct — the platform turns everything down to the same level anyway, so your track will match on playback.

“It sounds harsh.” Usually too much Presence or Air, or too much compression. Pull them back and compare with Bypass.

“The low end disappears on my phone.” Normal — small speakers cannot reproduce it. Check in Mono; if it also thins there, reduce Width.

“The VU meter is red.” Read the line underneath it. It states the fault: either louder than the target, or peaks above the ceiling.

“It sounds worse than my mix.” Trust that. Press Reset, choose your genre again, and change less. Doing less is usually the answer.

Stem Mixer