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Previous Clients
A Rocket To The Moon
A Rocket To The Moon
On Your Side
Civil Twilight
Civil Twilight
Civil Twilight
View Our Selected Discography
Vault Mastering Studios?
The Mastering Studio
Our mastering studio is the culmination of decades of acoustic research, providing the foundation for our audio mastering services. Designed by the renowned Walters-Storyk Design Group, our room offers unparalleled transparency in our monitoring environment, enabling us to make the critical decisions necessary during the mastering process.
Our mastering console is equipped with custom mastering equipment from industry-leading brands such as Sontec, Avalon Designs, Prism, Manley Labs, Lavry Engineering, Cranesong, Knif Audio, and Weiss Digital.
Nathan James | Chief Mastering Engineer
With over two decades of experience in the audio mastering field, Nathan James has mastered thousands of projects across all genres, providing Vault Mastering Studios with its most valuable asset: his ears.
A graduate of the Cleveland Institute of Music, Nathan's talents are the result of a long line of renowned mastering instructors and facilities he has worked with throughout his career. Years spent at mastering facilities such as The Hit Factory Mastering Studios and Masterdisk gave him the knowledge and insights used to produce some of the world's biggest records.
In 2006, Nathan founded Vault Mastering Studios in New York City, with the mission of providing independent music artists with access to exceptional audio mastering services.
Now based in Arizona, Nathan continues to master projects for independent and major label artists from all over the world while mentoring the next generation of mastering engineers.
A Tested Third-Party Perspective
At its core, mastering is a process that relies on the expertise and experience of a third-party, well-trained, focused, and creative sound expert with the aim of elevating an artist's recording into its final form.
Mastering should always respect the intent of the music and the mix and obtaining the insight from an impartial perspective is vital toward the end of your project.
Thousands of clients have put their trust in Nathan's expertise to provide just that, and with remarkable success.
Quality Above All Else & Confidence in Your Masters
The audio mastering process is full of potential pitfalls and challenges, yet professional and timely mastering outcomes have never been more essential.
We collaborate with our clients (often under tight deadlines) to create masters that are perfect when they leave our mastering studios, and we are always willing to go the extra mile to ensure our clients are completely satisfied with their masters.
Our repeat clients tell us time and time again that we get it right the first time, and they come back to us because they have faith in our ability to deliver the best version of their recordings.
Audio Mastering Services
Stereo Mastering Services
Mastering represents the final moment to get everything right with your recording project. We set out to implement a high level standard of service and sonic outcome that is unparalleled by our competitors. Our clients rely on us from all corners of the globe because we provide a communicative, stressless, and sonically fulfilling experience for our clients.
Whether mastering for a streaming-only release, vinyl mastering, CD mastering, or HI-RES, etc., we can meet all of your needs on your timeline.
Dolby ATMOS / Spacial Mastering
As "immersive audio" becomes a more prevalent part of the lexicon in the music industry, we're making the move to adopt the technologies necessary to meet those challenges and service those of our clients who are exploring this option for their music. Whether ATMOS, 3D, 8D, etc...immersive audio sounds incredible and you don't need a dedicated surround system to hear it; you can experience it on headphones which is one element that makes it so unique and viable in today's market.
Apple Digital Masters
Vault Mastering is proud to have been one of the original Apple Approved mastering studios back when it launched the "Mastered for iTunes" program. Rebranded today under the name "Apple Digital Masters", this platform provides us with the ability to tailor the mastering to Apple's encoding and decoding process, and gives us yet another avenue to elevate our masters above the rest. With these tools and techniques we can ensure your masters are submitted according to Apple's standards on high resolution delivery and that they rise above the rest of the pack.
Sound Restoration
Restoration Services have come along way from the basic de-clicking days of Sonic Solutions. With today's technologies we can remove distortions, air handling noise, cracks & creeks, pops & glitches, etc. We've even removed baby cries from reverb trails and none were the wiser. So whether from tape, vinyl, cassette and even digital formats such as DAT, CD, Minidisc, etc, we can bring your recordings into the modern era and provide you with a technologically updated version of cherished and important recordings.
What Our Clients Say
Not only did Nathan do an incredible job mastering, but without a molecule of ego, he produced three different masters for us, each meeting a completely different need. He understood what we were going for and pulled it off while maintaining the highest level of sonic quality.
John Medeski
Composer / MusicianJust listening to the mastered tracks from our session earlier today. I am knocked out with the way it sounds!
Michael Kocour
Pianist & Director of Jazz Studies at Arizona State UniversityNathan has a genuinely sensitive touch that graces all of his work, and I am constantly in awe of the often subtle but always brilliant work he does to refine those things that just slip under the radar with most people. A musical, brilliant, sweet, thoughtful, and dedicated human being. I absolutely adore working with Nathan and The Vault.
D. James Goodwin
Recording / Mixing EngineerThis master sounds amazing, super clean, I LOVE the quality of the vocal and the bottom end hits great- You nailed it!
BARii
Music ProducerMy hat is off to you good sir. I'm just checking out the masters back at the studio now and they sound amazing. The masters are unmistakably the mixes that we've been agonizing over, however, refined; enhanced. All the nuance and detail has been preserved, but the intent is more portable now.
Brian Bender
Recording / Mixing EngineerAmazing job!! I always think my demo masters sound pretty good, and then I hear what you do and I’m just blown away. So open, with so much more clarity and separation. Excellent job!
Thanks again! And thanks for being able to fit it in last minute right before you left out of town.
Stephen Moyer
Mixing EngineerThe whole experience with Nathan and Vault Mastering was exceptional! I knew this process would make a big difference in the sound of my project, but Nathan really takes it to a whole new level. This guy knows what he's doing - HIGHLY recommended!
John Willis
Independent MusicianOh Nathan, you bring joy to my day.....
Those songs are full of life now for sure. Great job! They have even more energy than they did before. I'm like a proud dad right now! This is the happiest I've been after getting a master back.
This is the reason I tell my bands to use you is because your masters comes back right the first time and no one's time gets wasted.
Evan Coffman
Mixing Engineer / Music ProducerDude, all I can say is wow! You exceeded my expectations! Thanks to you, my recordings now have a great warm round glow to them. AWESOME !! Thanks for the great work, I will never do another project without you doing the master.
Carl Fischer
Independent MusicianTo his followers:
I just got the masters for the movie score I finished with Nathan James at Vault Mastering. Nathan used to be an assistant to Scott Hull at Masterdisk and has worked on most of my previous albums with Scott. He is now running his own outfit (Vault Mastering) and this is the first time he's mastered my music by himself. He did a fantastic job with it! It sounds unbelievably good and it was a pleasure from start to finish as we mixed the sound and Nathan's masters.
Thomas Dybdahl
Singer-songwriterHey man - just took a listen. Sounds great! 100% approved. Thanks again for a great job, it really kicks ass.
Sean Han
Unicorn TaxidermyJust wanted to say thanks again for the beautiful and thoughtful work you did mastering the new Midnight Moan record. It sounds just like I wanted it to. Much obliged! I'll keep you posted if we end up needing vinyl audio mastering.
Andrew Bradbury
Midnight MoanI just wanted to follow up with you re: you’re mastering on Light of My life. It sounded excellent!
In fact, I’m really happy with all the work you did for the Exodus project.
Thank you again for being so pro and for a job well done.
Troy Samson
Mixing EngineerHey Nathan, I literally dropped my jaw after the first 5 seconds. I sent both mastered tracks to the guys in the band and they're very impressed. The vocals have a great dimension and are sitting perfectly with the ensemble. Thank you !