I can definitely tell the difference of a mastered and "un-mastered" track .
IMPOSSIBLE.
Unless you know what the song sounded like BEFORE IT WAS MASTERED you'd have no way of knowing what is different from the "unmastered" mix.
For an example , if some claim they master then compare your tracks on a smart phone with an industry track. All my mixes sound good in the car but when i compare my so called master track to the industry track on the phone then i can tell the industry track is really phat and loud and you can hear everything.
Here is the huge flaw in your example:
You are not comparing YOUR mastered track to YOUR unmastered track.
You are comparing YOUR unmastered track to SOMEBODY ELSE'S "mastered"...
You are ASSUMING the difference is because his track is "mastered" and yours is not.
Bad assumption!
The fact is, your track probably sounds worse because the "industry" track (as you call it) is all or some combination of mixed better, recorded better, produced batter, uses better sounds, has better arrangement and/or is performed better.
A track will be "phat", "loud" and you will be able to "hear everything" after the final mix and before "mastering"... yes, you can make your track "louder" in mastering...
...but if your track is not "phat" before you master it, and you cannot "hear everything" before you master it...
Then you have a bad mix.
A "mastered" track will not magically transform from a piece of shit to a high quality "industry" track.
I use my phone as good reference cuz it has beats audio but other then that, is it wrong to use that as a reference?
there is nothing you shouldn't use to reference.
But anyway mastering takes time and alot skill and knowledge to understand it. it just not simple as lot of people think. a master plugin is not gonna solve the problem. Understanding it will! Practice makes perfect . Im still learning
Here is the problem so many amateur "producers" and "mixers" have today...
They think "mastering" takes all this time and skill and they think they can just jump in and slap a mix together and have some other person fix it for them.
There is MUCH more involved in mixing than mastering.
In the mix, you have to get every instrument to fit perfectly with every other instrument.
you need to make everything clear if you want it clear or muddy if you want it muddy.
you have to create your soundscape.
Mixing is where you make the song sound like the "song"... the way it sounds after you "mix" it is pretty much how it will be from then on.
They think "well, it can't be MY fault! If my song doesn't sound like that industry track, it must be because that had their tracks mastered, and mastering is some crazy stuff that is impossible to understand. You have to send your track out to a special mastering engineer who will finish my song and make it sound like a real song."
Nope. Sorry.
