How Long Does Mixing and Mastering Take?

“How long does it take” has two answers: how many hours an engineer actually works on your song, and how many days pass before you hear it. The first depends on the session, the editing it needs and the engineer. The second depends on the studio’s queue and its revision process. This page covers both, first with our own delivery times by service, then with the general working times for mixing and mastering and what makes them longer or shorter.

How long mixing and mastering take at Major Mixing

From our pricing page and Terms, checked 31 October 2026. Weekends included. The clock starts once we have confirmed your files are complete, and Rush can be booked from that point.

How long does it take to mix a song?

Mixing one song usually takes somewhere between a few hours and a full working day of hands-on time; 4–8 hours is the range most engineers quote for a typical song. A large or messy session can stretch over several days. For an experienced mix engineer, one working day is usually enough even for a big project.

Part of that is knowing where to stop. A mix is never “complete” in the sense that nothing could be changed, so experienced engineers start with a clear idea of the result they want and recognise when they have reached it. Fresh ears matter too: many engineers split a mix over two sessions, because the next morning catches things that hours of focus do not.

The stages of a mix and how long each one takes

A mix is not one continuous task. It usually has four stages:

Preparation. Importing the tracks, naming, grouping and colour-coding them, setting up routing and loading reference tracks. A 15-track session and a 100-track session need very different amounts of time here, and clearly named stems make this stage much shorter.

Editing. Timing fixes, pitch correction, cleaning up noise and breaths, and sometimes replacing weak sounds. Well-recorded, well-played tracks need little of this. A large session that needs heavy vocal tuning or stem replacement can need more editing time than mixing time.

Mixing. Balance, EQ, compression, space and automation. This is where the engineer’s speed and taste matter most, although the number of tracks still sets a minimum.

Revisions. After the first version, the artist listens and sends notes. Each round is usually short, but nobody can predict in advance how many rounds a song will need, which is why revisions are the least predictable part of the timeline.

What makes a mix take longer

1. Track count. 20 tracks and 100 tracks are different jobs. More tracks mean more preparation, more decisions and more automation.
2. Editing and stem replacement. If parts need tuning, timing work or replacing, that happens before the mix proper can start.
3. Recording quality. Sometimes a part is recorded so poorly that no amount of processing will fix it, and the best option is to re-record it. That can add days or weeks to a release, though not to the engineer’s hours.
4. The engineer’s way of working. Some engineers finish in one sitting, others prefer to come back the next day with fresh ears. Beginners usually need more hours than experienced engineers for the same result.
5. Extra versions. Instrumentals, a clean radio edit or a TV mix add time after the main mix is approved.
6. Revision rounds. Every round adds time. Clear, specific notes make rounds shorter.

Do all professional engineers mix quickly?

Experience makes mixing faster, but only up to a point. A beginner can spend weeks on one song because they don’t yet know which tool solves which problem. An experienced engineer knows their chain and gets to a balanced mix much sooner.

Even so, well-known engineers differ a lot: some finish a song in six to eight hours, others take several days and come back to it with fresh ears, and some prepare more than one version for the artist to choose from. None of these is more “professional” than the others. What matters is that the engineer can estimate their own time accurately and deliver when they said they would.

How long a mix takes us

It depends on the song, so here are our typical hands-on times rather than one number.

Preparation: about 10–20 minutes for a 10–20 track session, 20–30 minutes for 20–60 stems, and 30–40 minutes for 60–90 stems.

Editing: about an hour for a 10–20 track session; 2–3 hours for an average project; and in rare cases a full day for a 60–90 track session that needs heavy tuning and timing work.

Mixing: once the session is prepared and edited, about 1–1.5 hours for fewer than 20 stems, 2–2.5 hours for 20–40 tracks, and 4–5 hours for a 60–90 track session, if everything goes right.

Revisions: one round usually takes about an hour of work, whatever the size of the project, and comes back to you within a day.

How long does it take to master a song?

Mastering time depends mostly on the quality of the mix. A professional mastering engineer typically spends 30–90 minutes on an average song. A very good mix can take less; a mix with problems, or stem mastering, can take several hours.

Mastering is easier to estimate than mixing because the engineer works on one stereo file, not dozens of tracks, and usually has an established process. It still has its own variables.

What affects mastering time

The quality of the mix. This matters more than anything else. A balanced mix needs decisions, not repairs: the engineer shapes the tone and loudness and prepares the files for release. A mix with a buried vocal, a boomy low end or heavy limiting on the master bus slows everything down, and some problems can only be fixed in the mix. Then the mastering engineer has to ask for a new mix, and the timeline grows.

The engineer’s experience. An experienced mastering engineer usually reaches a better result in less time.

Extra versions. An instrumental, a clean version, an Apple Digital Masters file or a vinyl master each add a little time.

How long mastering takes us

For a good mix, our mastering usually takes 30 minutes to an hour of work. A problem mix can take 3–4 hours including revisions, and most of that time goes into working around issues that belong in the mix. Stem mastering takes us about 2–3 hours, and each alternative master (Apple Digital Masters, Mastered for Spotify, an instrumental) about 30 minutes more.

As a rule of thumb, one working day is enough for an experienced engineer to edit, mix and master one typical song. Delivery takes longer than that because work is scheduled, and because a mix is better checked again with fresh ears before it goes out.

How long does it take to mix and master an album?

In general, plan an album in weeks rather than days. A common rule of thumb across the industry is about a day of mixing per song, plus revision rounds, and then a separate mastering stage for the whole record, where the songs are matched in tone and level and sequenced. Most of the calendar time goes into feedback: everyone involved has to listen to every song, often more than once.

With us, the 2–3 days per song still applies to multi-song orders, and for EPs and albums we agree a delivery schedule when we confirm your files. If you have a release date, put it in the order notes and we plan around it. Our guide to mastering an album covers what to prepare.

Turnaround at Major Mixing

At Major Mixing, mixing, mastering and complete mixing and mastering come back in 2–3 days per song, weekends included, counted from when we confirm your files. Upgrade Mixing and Mastering, where our chief engineer handles the mix, the master and every revision on analog hardware, takes up to 4 days per song. Six revision rounds are included on every service, and each round usually comes back within a day.

Max Rayden, who founded the studio in 2019, has been mixing for more than ten years, and the studio has completed more than 11,000 projects. You can see the releases we have worked on before you order.

Listeners may not know anything about mixing and mastering, but they can tell when a song doesn’t sound as finished as the records they love. That is the gap a good mix and master close, and it’s worth the few days it takes.

Hands-on hours, not calendar time — a mix is rarely done in one sitting, because fresh ears the next morning catch things that eight hours of focus will not.

Rather have a release-ready master done by an engineer? Our engineers master your finished mix for $50 per song, back in 2–3 days per song, with 6 revision rounds included.