A:  Mixing greatly varies based on the demands of the project. Generally speaking, most mixes will be able to be turned around in a day or two if booked ahead with ample time.  The biggest time consumption during mixing is the editing that may be involved; this includes vocal tuning, multitrack editing, timing corrections, and or sample reinforcement/replacement, or all of the above. If multitrack instrumentals such as acoustic drums, brass sections, or stereo guitars are involved, a mix can be much more involved due to the required editing. This may increase the length of turnaround to 3-4, or even 5 days in some extreme cases. One other factor may be the amount of revisions required, which is taken into account in this mentioned timeline already. If there is little to no editing required, a mix will usually just involve levelling, panning, signal processing, and time based effects. This is a scenario where it could easily take 1 day.

Mastering the material is a lot more of a standardized process; with signal processing being the bulk of the work, the automation and referencing are usually very timely. This entire process on average takes about 2-3 hours.  

A:  Mixing is the technical process behind levelling and panning recorded material, as well as improving that material dynamically and spatially, through the means of signal processing.  This is where we take multiple tracks (vocals, bass guitar, snare drum, bass drum, etc..) and work on making them belong in the same sonic space.  In many cases, the mixing process will often include editing, like correcting timing of takes, “compiling” takes, and tuning melodic instruments or vocals.  It can also offer production value, through time based effects and sample reinforcement/replacement.  In a lot of scenarios a mix engineer will have creative control over placing elements like ad libs and doubles, as well as repurposing recorded material to act as extra production elements.  

Mastering is the finalizing process of which a recording undergoes, which takes it from a mixed project, to a complete, industry standard, salable recording.  It involves processing a sum of all the elements we worked with in the mix.  That means during mastering, we are only working with a SINGLE stereo WAV file.  A common misconception of mastering is that it only involves increasing perceived loudness or actual loudness; while that IS part of the process, it also involves creating more excitement spatially and harmonically, as well as making sure it finally translates well on a multitude of playback systems.