Mastering
Mastering is the last artistic step of a production and the first technical step of a release. We master classical, jazz and pop in our Vienna control room and deliver in every format a release calls for today: stereo for streaming and download, CD masters as DDP, SACD, 5.1 surround and Dolby Atmos. As trained Tonmeister we work for artists, bands, ensembles and labels in Austria, across Europe and worldwide.
What mastering does
Mastering turns individual mixes into a release. For a pop production that means the song has to work on a phone, in the car and in a club, with punch and loudness that hold up next to other tracks in a playlist, without crushing the dynamics. With classical and acoustic music it is rarely about loudness, but about tone and level staying consistent from movement to movement, and pauses and decays lasting as long as the music needs. In both cases there is everything nobody should hear: clean starts and endings, correct levels, and metadata that passes distribution without queries.
Stereo mastering
The stereo master is still the version most people hear. We master in a control room that has been acoustically optimised over years of measurement, on PMC IB-1S main monitors, and check the result on headphones as well. You receive high-resolution masters for streaming and download and, if required, the versions derived from them for CD and SACD. Single, EP or album: we master our own productions as well as finished mixes that you send us.
Formats and delivery
Every target format has its own rules. We have put the details on separate pages:
CD master & DDP
The replication-ready master for your CD, with PQ codes, ISRC, EAN and CD-Text. More on DDP creation
SACD
Mastering and authoring for hybrid SACDs through to the cutting master, which almost no studio still offers. More on SACD
Surround & Dolby Atmos
Album assembly, tonal adjustment and delivery of immersive productions. More on surround and Atmos masters
Quality control
Technical and musical checks of audio and video before anything leaves the building. More on quality control
Apple Digital Masters and streaming
marinegrau is Apple Digital Masters certified. Your release can therefore appear on Apple Music with the corresponding badge, mastered from the high-resolution source and checked for how it sounds after encoding. For all other platforms we deliver masters in the resolution and with the metadata your distributor requires.
How we work together
Mastering can be booked on its own or as part of a complete album production. You can attend the session in Vienna or send us your mixes via secure upload. If you would like to listen in from a distance, you can join by video with real-time hi-res audio streaming. Read more under remote work. If there is no finished mix yet, we take care of the mixing too.
Tell us about your music and the formats you want to release in. We will tell you what it takes.