We founded Masterchannel because we all saw the same problem: Artists struggling to release well-mastered records with confidence.
Simon saw this as a mastering engineer, Christian as an indie artist, and Tom as a celebrity producer. We knew the solutions on the market at the time didn’t deliver on their promises, so we decided to build our own.
Here are our own records (pun intended) of how Masterchannel came to life.
Simon: Why I had to automate my work as an engineer
Back in high school, my cousin Lucas asked me if I could mix and master his latest House remix for SoundCloud. That remix went viral, and suddenly there were lots of producers asking me to master their music for them.
The following years, I kept trying to juggle my computer science studies at Fraunhofer and working late nights in the studio. I was working for major acts across Europe and the US, but I was reaching my limit.
At first, I was looking to hire more engineers to expand my mastering business. But my computer science background inspired me to try something else: building an autonomous system that could master tracks just like me.
What sounded like a move to the Dark Side turned out to work really well. Christian was one of the first customers who tried my prototype, and he was convinced that this was the future of mastering, or, at least the future of my mastering business, and in any case much better than what the competition had to offer.
Christian: Why I saw the potential in what Simon had built
I had been DJing and producing music for almost 15 years before I met Simon. But achieving a polished, professional sound was always a struggle for me. I tried everything at the time: using iZotope Ozone myself, trying other AI services like LANDR or eMastered, and even paying hundreds of dollars to professional engineers. None of it really helped me get to the sonic level I wanted.
Everything changed when Simon showed me his mastering prototype. It allowed me to simply upload a song and get it back in much better quality than I could have ever achieved myself. This felt like a ‘hack’ to me, because I could suddenly trust the final sound of my creations – which just made me want to create more!
I quickly realized that this prototype could be much more than just a tool for Simon’s customers. I wanted to turn this into a proper company. After exchanging ideas with Simon for a year, I decided to leave my PhD at the time to go all-in. This was the moment Masterchannel was born.
Our Mission: A global standard for audio engineering
Coming from opposite ends of music production, Simon from engineering and Christian from production, we have a unique perspective on the challenges you as artists face. Our goal with Masterchannel is to handle the technical heavy lifting, allowing you to focus on what really matters: being creative.
We hope Masterchannel helps you sound great at every step of your artistic journey, from your first demo to final release. We want you to feel confident about the music you put out there.
If you want more insights into why we created Masterchannel, see The Story Behind Masterchannel video:
Thanks for being a part of this journey. If you have any feedback, or just want to get in touch, please don’t hesitate to reach out. We love hearing from you!
All the best & happy mastering,
Christian & Simon