The Mastering Lab, Melbourne

When Richmond Recorders closed, their Neumann VMS66 disc cutting system was sold to Gil Matthews who established The Mastering Lab in Melbourne, Australia. The Mastering Lab used the "ML" prefiix on all their master cuts.

The Mastering Lab initially provided disc cutting services to The Record Plant, Melbourne, AU and later to Corduroy Records when they started pressing records. Corduroy later purchased their own lathe and cut their masters in-house. The Mastering Lab masters audio for all formats and is still cutting lacquer masters in 2025 for a select and discerning client base. It is presenlty the only facility in Melbourne capable of properly cutting master lacquers from analogue tape for true AAA records.

Harry Williamson worked here as a cutting engineer and after a few months Peter Freeland took over as cutting engineer using a coat hanger as his signature. After Peter left, he was replaced by Matthew Anthony, who along with Gil Matthews used the signature 'MA+GM' in runouts. Today, all disc mastering is performed by Gil Matthews.

Not to be confused with the more famous The Mastering Lab in California, US, or with The Record Plant, Melbourne, AU (which was also sometimes referred to as The Mastering Lab due to the connections mentioned above).