When the time comes to master your music, you've basically got a couple of options. To get the best results, you'll give it to a professional, but this can be expensive. Alternatively, you could get some suitable software and have a go at mastering it yourself, but while there are some great plugins out there, you still need to know how to use them.

Enter MixGenius's LANDR, a new online service that's billed as a drag 'n' drop mastering solution. Simply upload a track, and it promises to automatically master it and send it back to you.

The system is based on MixGenius's custom algorithms, which it says have been developed over eight years of university research, testing and tweaking based on feedback from trained audio experts.

Expanding on this, the company says: "LANDR is smart and getting smarter. Its true beauty lies in its ability to learn. Our system is built around an adaptive engine that 'listens' and reacts to music, using micro-genre detection to make subtle frame-by-frame adjustments selectively using tools like multi-band compression, EQ, stereo enhancement, limiting and aural excitation based on the unique properties of the song. Basically, the more we throw at LANDR, the better it gets."

Try it now

It's certainly an intriguing proposition, and you can try it for free if you sign up for an Amateur account. The entitles you to unlimited 192kbps MP3 masters; spend $9 a month on a Pro account and you'll also get four uncompressed masters. Finally, the $19-per-month Pro Unlimited account gives you unlimited uncompressed masters.

LANDR is currently in its infancy - upgrades to the engine are in the pipeline, we're told - but, depending on the quality of the results you can get from it, we can see it holding significant appeal for a lot of musicians. Time will tell if it's the 'make my track sound good' silver bullet that's often been talked of, but we'll certainly be monitoring its progress with interest.