Vinyl Mastering Online — Free
with Transparent Mastering

What loudness should you target for Vinyl?

Vinyl mastering is fundamentally different from digital: there is no loudness target to chase, because the physical medium and the cutting engineer set the limits. Your job is to deliver a clean, dynamic pre-master that cuts well. Give the lathe engineer a dynamic master closer to your mix level (around -14 LUFS integrated, never a crushed digital master), because loud, dense masters force wide groove modulation, shorten the side, and reduce playback volume. Keep the low end tight and centred: bass energy below roughly 100-150 Hz should be summed toward mono, since loud stereo bass makes the cutting head modulate vertically and can cause the stylus to skip. Tame sibilance and harsh highs above about 10 kHz, because the stylus physically cannot track exaggerated high-frequency content and it distorts on playback, especially toward the inner grooves where velocity drops. Do not apply the RIAA curve yourself — that is applied at the cutting stage and reversed by the listener’s turntable preamp; your pre-master should be flat and full-range. This preset is a sane, safe starting point that keeps dynamics, controls the low end and eases sibilance; the cutting engineer always makes the final calls and may apply their own EQ, de-essing and variable pitch to fit the side.

When you export from Quantara targeting Vinyl, the engine measures your master's integrated loudness (ITU-R BS.1770 / EBU R128), normalises it toward the -12.0 LUFS reference, and holds inter-sample (true) peaks under -1 dBTP. It will not slam a quiet, dynamic track up to a loud number just to hit a target — and since the major streaming platforms normalise playback anyway, sitting near the reference is what actually matters. You stay in control: tweak the chain, A/B against the original, and export when it sounds right.

How to master your track for Vinyl

Best genres for Vinyl mastering

These genres perform especially well with the Vinyl preset: Jazz, Rock, Electronic, Classical, Blues. Each genre has its own frequency balance and dynamics, so treat the preset as a starting point and fine-tune by ear.

Why master Vinyl with Quantara?

Traditional mastering engineers charge $50-300 per track and require 2-5 business days. Quantara gives you a fast, transparent mastering chain tuned for Vinyl — free (3 exports/month) or unlimited on the Pro plan at €9/month. It is a strong, measurable starting point, not a replacement for a trained engineer's ears on a critical release.

Our 9-stage mastering chain — HPF, sub enhancement, low-mid EQ, presence boost, air EQ, stereo widening, glue compression, harmonic saturation, and true-peak limiting — is tuned toward Vinyl and fully adjustable in real time — and every stage is shown on real LUFS, true-peak and gain-reduction meters, so you can verify what it does.

Unlike generic online mastering tools, Quantara Music gives you full control: adjust all 9 parameters in real time, hear the difference with A/B bypass, and export when you're satisfied. All processing happens in your browser — your audio never leaves your device until you choose to save it.

FAQ — Vinyl mastering