If you have read my last article, What does an audio engineer do when mastering music?, you already know what is involved in the professional mastering process. To re-cap what that article said to all who havent read it, the mastering process adds polish to your songs and makes them sonically cohesive. A lot of albums are recorded and then thrown on a disc, sans mastering. While this works fine, by no means do I recommend it. There are a few reasons why I wouldnt recommend doing this.
What does an audio engineer do when mastering music?
So youre a musician that just recorded your first album. You probably went into a recording studio and played all of your parts a couple of times, with the audio engineer handling all of the technical stuff. As far as you know, they should be able to take all the parts they recorded, burn it to a disc, and then it should be ready to press.