YEARS of experience

+ CLIENTS

+ SONGS

Violent Soho
The Middle East
The Veronicas
The Choirboys
Joey Montana
Sarah McLeod
Samsaruh
Route 33
Planetshakers
Neffex
The Screaming Jets
Mari Jean
Keenan & Skizzy Mars
James Morrison
Hillsong United
Gossling
Giorgio Moroder
Electric Mary
Eden Prince
Ebenezer
Cousin Tony's Brand New Firebird
Cody Simpson
Christie Lamb
Camoflage Rose
Butterfingers
Bebe Rexha
Baby Animals
Baker Grace
Alli Simpson
Earl St. Clair
HEX
Jacob Lee

Mastering playlist

MATTHEW GRAY

Over the course of his extensive career Matthew has mastered tens of thousands of titles, with clients from all over the world including USA, UK, Singapore, Russia, Japan and Brazil as well as servicing Australian artists both locally and nationally.

First of it’s kind

Matthew Gray Mastering operates from a Northward Acoustics “Front-To-Back” (FTB) room, the first in Australia by French designer Thomas Jouanjean. Front-To-Back is an approach designed to provide optimum room response to create a highly accurate yet natural listening environment.

EQUIPMENT

Matthew Gray Mastering uses new generation and vintage analog equipment. In the list below, we’ve put a symbol next to the special gear that sets us apart. Of course, the rest of the gear is an integral part of our mastering process too.

monitoring

• Duntech Marquis C4000 floor standing monitors with crossover mods
• Pass Labs X250 Class A/B power amplifier
• Velodyne DD12 digitally controlled stereo sub-woofers
• Dangerous Music Monitor with Chris Muth designed DAC

Analog signal processing & playback

• Michelangelo Custom Tube Mastering EQ (read more)
• Neumann PEV-C vintage active ‘vinyl cutting’ mastering EQ
• Neumann PEV vintage passive ‘vinyl cutting’ mastering EQs
• Neumann U473A vintage VCA compressors
• Neve EV10852 vintage summing output transformers
• API 2500 analog quad VCA bus compressor (modified)
• Thermionic Culture Phoenix valve (vari-mu) analog compressor (mastering edition) modified (read more)
• Custom designed Barry Porter mastering EQ
• IJ Research M250EP T-Filter Equalizer
• Dangerous Master analog mastering console with M/S processing
• Dangerous Monitor analog & digital monitoring console
• Dangerous Insert Routing Switcher
• Studer A807 1/4″ 7.5, 15 or 30ips open reel mastering deck aligned & biased for Quantegy * GP9, 456 & RMGI 911 analog tape
• Ampex ATR-102 1/2″ 15 or 30 ips open reel mastering deck fully rebuilt by Mike Spitz with Flux Magnetics heads & ARIA discrete class A electronics (read more)

+

Converters

• Cranesong HEDD Quantum 2ch DA/AD converters
• Antelope Audio Pure2 Mastering A/D & D/A Converter  (read more)
• Forssell MADA-2 world class 2ch 24-bit 192kHz A/D & D/A converter (read more)
• Cranesong Solaris 2ch Mastering D/A converter (read more)
• Dangerous (Chris Muth) Monitor DAC

Digital signal processing

• UAD DSP Plugins, Various AAX, VST & AU plug-ins

Digital audio workstations & DSP playback

• Custom PC running Pro Tools and Reaper with RME HDSPe AES32 interfaces and custom clocking to ensure accurate sync between all sample rate deliverables.
• Fostex D-5 DAT Player

Software

• ProTools
• Reaper
• Sonic Studio soundBlade SE
• WaveEditor
• SampleManager
• DDP Creator Pro
• OEM Matthew Gray Mastering DDP Player Software
• Sony Pro-Codec
• iZotope RX

Wiring and routing

• Canare DA202 110 ohm digital audio cabling for interconnects
• Dangerous Master analog routing console with M/S

What is mastering?

Mastering is the final stage of the audio production process, and the last opportunity to get your project sounding as good as possible before its release, whether as a digital release, CD, vinyl, broadcast or streaming.


Mastering is a 3 stage process:

Correcting issues

Following a careful review of the audio, any issue in the frequency domain, levels or dynamics that may cause problems in certain playback environments are corrected. Matthew Gray Mastering has invested a lot of time and expense to set up a listening environment which can reveal potential flaws or technical issues in a recording or mix.

Creative enhancement

The second crucial stage of the mastering process is to enhance the creative or ‘musical’ aspect of your project. This involves creative equalisation (EQ), compression and limiting tailored to enhance the musical direction and production style of your project.

Amazing Support

The final stage of mastering involves the assembly of your project into the format you require. This can include track sequencing, fades, gaps between songs to create a flow for your release, as well as PQ codes, ISRC codes and CD-Text which is all completed before the audio is packaged in the format you require.

Vinyl Mastering

At Matthew Gray Mastering we can master your project for streaming and vinyl at the same time.
There are a number of criteria which need to be met in order for a project to be considered ready for vinyl cutting. In order to meet these criteria, some of the things we address during the mastering session include:
Ensure bass is mono up to 100Hz and that its not overly pronounced below 40Hz
Reduce excessive sibilance and high frequency content such as cymbals, hi-hats and shakers
Control the dynamics without excessive levels or distortion
Masters for vinyl are delivered to the client or vinyl cutting plant as 24-bit stereo interleaved wave files. Check out our tips for releasing your project on vinyl.

Stem Mastering

Stem mastering, also known as stem mixing, is like using the sub groups on a live mixing console. Instead of everything being summed to the stereo master output to create a single stereo mix file, you can break the mix down into the specific parts. These parts can then each receive special attention in the mastering session.

Apple digital masters

What does Apple Digital Masters really mean?

In an effort to improve the quality of music digitally distributed through the iTunes music store, Apple have responded with Apple Digital Masters (known until August 2019 as Mastered for iTunes [MFiT]). Apple’s aim is to ensure that the masters produced by approved Apple Digital Masters engineers maintain the highest fidelity right up to the point of the AAC encoding process.

MIXING STUDIO

Located in Brisbane at the Matthew Gray Mastering facility, the mix studio has been designed to have the most natural and balanced acoustics with full-range midfield monitoring that you can trust. Supremely-accurate monitoring is the main focus and point of difference compared to any other mix facility in Queensland.

Contact Us

Matthew Gray Mastering is located in Australia, 15 minutes North of Brisbane’s CBD, it’s a quick trip from the city or the airport. Please see the map below for directions.

Contact details

Telephone 07 3851 4023 (or international +61 7 3851 4023)
Mobile / cell phone 0412 741 677 (or international +61 412 741 677)

Online mastering: Upload your mix

If you are taking advantage of our online mastering service, you can upload your mix to our secure servers.

Physical & courier address

Unit 21, 1147 South Pine Road, Arana Hills Queensland 4054, Australia

If you have any questions or need any further information, please get in touch with us by filling out the form below and we’ll be in touch with you as soon as possible.