Do I need a mastering DAW?
Your existing DAW is probably fine for most mastering duties. All modern hosts are capable of loading WAV or AIFF files, processing them with plugins, then rendering the results.
Some DAWs allow you to load plugins directly onto a clip – known as object-based processing – which can be useful when laying out a whole album, as the plugins for each song only run when that clip is playing. Thus, overall CPU usage stays lower, and final renders are made faster. But this isn’t essential: you can run each song on its own track instead, and use your DAW’s freeze function if that CPU meter creeps up too high.
Built-in plugins also vary between DAWs, but their quality isn’t really important, as you’ll probably use third-party plugins for mastering. Other tools may be more significant: spectral editing features can be incredibly useful for fixing rogue noises like clicks and pops, or coughs and chair creaks.
Reaper, for example, now has built-in nondestructive spectral editing, but the options are buried in the Actions list, so you’ll need to assign hotkeys or toolbar buttons to use them efficiently. Alternatively, WaveLab and various other audio editors now include spectral editing, and can be used either as your primary mastering environment or linked to your DAW. Then there’s iZotope’s RX, which comes with a suite of powerful spectral restoration tools.
If you want to create CD masters for replication, you’ll need the ability to create DDP images. This is the industry standard format, but most DAWs don’t support it. Reaper can create DDP images, but the process isn’t at all userfriendly, so we don’t recommend it unless you have another DDP player to check the results in. WaveLab makes it easy to create DDPs, with a handy wizard doing most of the leg work for you.
DDP compatibility isn’t essential, though, as you can easily render WAVs from any application, then use dedicated DDP authoring tools such as Sonoris DDP Creator or HOFA CD-Burn.DDP.Master.