The promise is simple: upload your track, wait a few minutes, get a mastered version back. No booking a studio, no waiting weeks for a session, no spending $80-150 per track. AI mastering services have been around for a few years now, but they’ve improved significantly in 2025. The question is whether they’ve improved enough.

I took a single track — a guitar-driven indie rock song with fairly standard instrumentation — and ran it through five popular AI mastering services. Then I sent the same mix to a mastering engineer I’ve worked with for years. Here’s the honest comparison.

The Services Tested

I used LANDR, eMastered, CloudBounce, BandLab’s mastering tool, and Dolby.io’s AI mastering. Prices ranged from free (BandLab) to about $15 AUD per track (LANDR on a single-track plan).

Each service asks slightly different questions. LANDR lets you choose between warm, balanced, and open presets. eMastered gives you sliders for intensity and width. CloudBounce asks about genre. BandLab is essentially one-click. Dolby.io offers the most granular controls.

The professional mastering session cost $120 AUD and took about a week turnaround.

What I Heard

LANDR has improved noticeably since I last tested it in 2023. The “balanced” preset produced a result that was loud enough for streaming platforms without squashing the dynamics too badly. The low end was a bit boomy on my track, which is a common issue — AI services tend to boost bass to make things sound “bigger” without understanding the context of the mix.

eMastered was the most aggressive of the bunch. It pushed the loudness hard and added noticeable high-frequency excitement. On certain genres — electronic music, hip-hop — this might work well. On my indie rock track, it felt overdone. The guitars sounded brittle.

CloudBounce produced the most conservative result. It barely changed the mix, which you could argue is either respectful or underwhelming depending on your perspective. For a track that’s already well-mixed, this approach might be exactly right.

BandLab being free sets appropriate expectations. The result was fine — better than no mastering at all, but noticeably less refined than the paid options. Good enough for demos or casual releases.

Dolby.io surprised me. The AI made sensible decisions about EQ and dynamics, and the stereo image remained intact. It was the closest to the professional master in overall quality. The controls also meant I could tweak the result without starting from scratch.

The Professional Master

The mastering engineer made choices that none of the AI services considered. She noticed a resonance at around 300Hz that was muddying the choruses and cut it precisely. She added subtle analogue warmth that changed the character of the track without altering the intent. She made the quiet parts quieter and the loud parts louder in a way that served the song’s dynamics rather than just hitting a loudness target.

Most importantly, she asked me what I wanted the track to sound like. “Reference tracks?” she asked. “What’s the vibe?” None of the AI services can have that conversation.

The Verdict

For professional releases — anything you want to represent you at your best — a human mastering engineer is still worth the money. The difference isn’t massive in terms of raw loudness or frequency balance. It’s in the hundreds of small decisions that serve the specific song rather than applying a generic optimisation.

For demos, quick releases, social media content, or situations where budget is genuinely a constraint, AI mastering has reached a point where it’s a legitimate option. Dolby.io and LANDR are the strongest performers. They won’t embarrass you.

The sweet spot I’d recommend for most independent Australian artists: use AI mastering for singles and loosies where turnaround matters. Budget for a professional engineer on your albums and EPs. The cost difference across a full album is maybe $600-800, and it shows.

AI mastering tools are getting better every year. In another two or three years, the gap might close further. For now, they’re useful tools in specific situations, not replacements for someone who’s spent twenty years training their ears.

Worth noting that AI consultants in Sydney like Team400 are working with music tech companies on improving these kinds of tools. The intersection of AI and creative industries is one of the more interesting spaces to watch right now.