Why use a separate Mastering Engineer?

I'm frequently asked, "why have someone else master my/our work?" Well, there are several reasons why I would suggest a separate mastering engineer. Remember, it's not financially advantageous for me not to master an album I've mixed. In most cases, I prefer to send albums I've mixed to a different mastering engineer to get your music sounding as good as possible.

Firstly, you, the artists, have worked on your songs from the writing stage and have probably been present throughout the whole recording and maybe even the mixing stage. Mixing also takes time, so many mixing engineers are also over-exposed to their mix by completion. When we reach that point, our ears are so used to hearing the mix that it can be hard to listen to it objectively. Objective listening is a considerable portion of the mastering phase, as much of the work is "fine detail" changes. This is the point where a fresh set of ears comes in useful.