Genres
Your track is listened to and tagged with a genre before mastering starts, and the mastering is tuned to it. Here is what it means and how to change it.
#Detection
When you upload, the middle of the song is listened to and tagged. The best match gives the primary genre (say, Electronic) and the full one (House), and the runner-up becomes the secondary genre.
#Why it matters
The primary genre, together with the measured loudness of your mix, decides how the master is built. A hot mix gets a gentler treatment than a quiet one; a classical piece gets one that respects dynamics; a hip-hop mix gets one that protects the low end. Every option in the Revision Suite is then applied on top of that.
| Detected as | Treated as |
|---|---|
| Pop, Blues, Folk, Funk / Soul, Latin, Reggae, Jazz, Stage & Screen | The general-purpose family |
| Electronic | Electronic |
| Rock | Rock |
| Hip Hop | Hip Hop |
| Classical | Classical |
| Non-Music (speech, field recordings) | Non-Music |
#Changing the genre
Click the pencil next to Genres in the Revision Info panel to open Edit Genres. Pick a primary and a secondary from the list. Save, then create a new revision so the change takes effect; earlier revisions keep the genre they were made with.
Does the genre change the prompt behaviour?
A little. The engineer knows the genre and keeps its choices in character for it, so "louder" on a ballad and "louder" on a techno track do not land the same way.
Can I master without a genre?
No, but you can pick Non-Music for podcasts and spoken word, which is built for speech.