What if I told you your mastering chain is why 90% of your mixes don’t actually hit like the pros? In this video I break down the mastering plugins I’m really using in 2025 to take a track from “it’s cool” to “oh nah this is industry.” I start with metering (because if you’re not watching LUFS and true peak, you’re basically guessing), then I show you why EQ on the master is non-negotiable for me—every song is different, so I tailor it, not some copy/paste template. From there I get into the sauce: harmonic excitement and loudness without turning your mix into a distorted brick. I walk through my go-to tools like Softube’s Weiss Exciter for that crispy top, Ozone Imager to make the record feel full and wide (without overdoing it), and a sleeper plugin called GC2 that gets my masters louder than anything else I’ve used—while still sounding good. I also show the order I like: SSL Fusion → EQ → WLM Plus for loudness/targets → exciters → imaging → GC2 for final loudness → Youlean for the final check. And if you’re tired of clients arguing about “version 3 vs version 4,” I put you on Wave Collab to keep feedback organized and compare versions side-by-side.