I just finished making an album. took me about 3months.
Band called Lunatic Crash.
Eran, Mally and I went to a mastering studio, Ideal Mastering in Hollow way. http://www.idealmastering.co.uk/index.html
the mastering engineer jeff, looks like one of typical heavy metal guys. actually there are so many hard music lovers do music engineering as well, is nice chap.
we spent only 2hr and half to complete it. we didn't have time to listen back. cos they had really tight budget..
though it turns out really good.
it so fun to hear changes at Masteing stage.
Bottom get tighter, also it sounds bit brighter.
i intended to have enough margin for mastering.
tips.
1, Make all songs consistence balance.
2, Clean Start Point and End point (Fade In, Fade Out)
3, Automate level.
4, solo by each frequency on multi band comp then fiddle around it.
5, Jeff used L3 for levelling.