Back in 2003, producer Vlado Dzihan began dreaming about opening his own mastering studio. He already had a recording studio but mastering was his passion and he wanted a space with great monitoring, great acoustics and versatile, fun gear he really liked.
It took 13 years to bring his vision to life but this summer he finally opened Milkshop Mastering in Vienna – a state of the art facility with one main studio and one edit suite. Designed by Jochen Veith, of JV-Acoustics, Milkshop Mastering’s main control room is equipped with PMC MB2-XBD passive monitoring, a Maselec MTC-1x mastering console and an extensive range of outboard equipment including Knif Soma, Chandler Curver Bender, Massive Passive and Michelangelo equalisers and compressors from Millennia TCL2 and Dangerous Music.
“The main room was designed around my previous PMC MB2 monitoring system,” Dzihan says. “I had been using that system for 10 years, but for the mastering suite I wanted more resolution so I decided to upgrade. Edvard Potisk, from PMC’s distributor Avitech, has always given us great support so he brought me a pair of MB2-XBD speakers to test. As soon as I heard them, that was it – I had to have them. They have more authority than the MB2s, and it’s not just down to their size. With speakers, you either love them or you don’t. Of course you can get used to anything but it’s so much more satisfying (for everybody) if they sound how you want them to sound and respond in the way you expect them to.”
Vlado Dzihan, who has more than 30 years’ experience as a musician, producer and music advisor, developed an interest in mastering in 2000 when he began an electronic music project, dZihan & Kamien, that has subsequently released four albums.
“From 2000 to 2006 I was discovering the world of mastering studios,” he says. “For me, producing music and mastering are very similar; you have an idea and vision about how a piece of music should or could sound and you work towards getting there. With mastering, you also get to do something extra because you can make the music become what the artist wanted it to be in the first place. That’s why I like mastering and why I have been attracted to it from the very first album I mastered.”
Over the years, Dzihan has worked in many mastering facilities including The Exchange Mastering in London and Nautilus Mastering in Milan.
“Nautilus was where I first heard PMC speakers,” he says. “I remember calling Avitech from Nautilus and asking if they could organize a demo of a pair of IB1s. From that moment on, I was hooked and I’ve used PMCs ever since.”
With Milkshop now open for business, Dzihan is busy re-mastering the complete Couch Records catalogue for streaming services and iTunes. He has also been working on projects for acts such as Konea Ra, Yehan Jehan, Thorstein Einarsson and Bar Nar.
For more information about Milkshop Mastering, please visit www.milkshopmastering.com
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About PMC
PMC is a UK-based, world-leading manufacturer of loudspeaker systems, the tools of choice in all ultra-critical professional monitoring applications, and also for the discerning audiophile at home, where they provide a transparent window into the recording artist’s original intentions. PMC products use the best available materials and design principles, including the company’s proprietary Advanced Transmission Line (ATL™) bass-loading technology, cutting-edge amplification and advanced DSP techniques to create loudspeakers that present sound and music exactly as it was when first created, with the highest possible resolution, and without coloration or distortion. For more information on our clients and products, see www.pmc-speakers.com.
