“Drinking It In” – The Vault Mastering and Nathan James Savour the A/D Advantages of LavryGold

NEW YORK: On Manhattan’s West Side, someone is keeping a careful eye on the waveforms: There, the Vault Mastering waits ensconced within a warren of NYC mastering pros, providing a safe haven for artists who care about keeping their music pristine and powerful.     
Inside the Vault, founder Nathan James keeps his ears on a steady stream of rock, pop, metal, hip hop, jazz and more for a clientele that has included The Fray, Staind, and This or the Apocalypse. For this experienced mastering engineer, however, the sweet spot isn’t only in his suite, which he’s outfitted with the extreme transparency of the Lavry Gold AD122-96MKIII A/D converter from Lavry Engineering.  
“I love hearing the music outside of the studio – I get the biggest kick out of walking into a store and hearing my clients’ music coming through the speakers,” notes Nathan. “Watching artists’ careers grow is really satisfying to me. I try to communicate as much as I can with my clients, and that’s why they come back to me and the studio: They know I want to connect with their music and their goals.”  
When it comes to equipping his room, Nathan has some original ideas about what constitutes the ideal converter. “The A/D is like the glass that holds the wine,” he says. “In order to perceive that wine as the vintner intended it – its texture, color – the glass needs to be very transparent. Likewise, an A/D has to be very transparent and completely capture the music that I pour into it.”      
Whether the record he’s mastering is a major label project or a rough-around-the-edges Brooklyn indie band, the full-frequency response of his Lavry Gold provides the complete picture he’s looking for. “I use the Lavry converters because what I put into it is what I hear coming out of it,” says Nathan. “The AD122-96MKIII does an amazing job of capturing the sound that’s coming off of my console, in a way that’s in a class of its own.   
“It captures the bass and low-mids extremely accurately. On a hard rock project, for example, if you push the Lavry Gold it’s got that kind of glowing bottom end – this air that happens – that lets you see a little bit more closely into the mix. When you’re talking about the most upper echelon of converters like this, it can be small details that make the difference. The Lavry Gold captures more of that dimension that you’re looking for. It helps the mastering engineer that wants to get that extra 2% out of the music.”
Featuring a -127dB dynamic range, 0.00005% total harmonic distortion + noise, built-in αβC αcoustic βit Correction® noise shaping, and more, the Lavry Engineering AD122-96MKIII provides Germano Studios’ clients with extreme accuracy and the full frequency response that they require for true 24-bit digital audio. Additional key features include switchable digital soft-knee limiter, +3 or +6dB gain, precision reference meter bridge, fully programmable digital test tones for system alignment, AES and word clock external synchronization 40-51kHz, 88.2kHz, 96kHz, DC removal, absolute polarity inversion, and multi-converter synchronization. 
The Vault continues to build its world-class reputation, and Nathan James is happy to see the artists he works with taking off too. “It’s terrific seeing my clients succeed,” he says. “I’m collaborating with one Vault client now on our seventh record together, and to hear the evolution of their music is very satisfying. Being a part of that is amazing.” 

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