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Mastering The Mix at Recording Week 2026: Announcing CARBON Q: A connected EQ and volume balance plugin that balances your vocals, music, drums and bass – all from a single window
RECORDING WEEK 2026: Getting a song to sound professional comes down to two things: how loud each part is, and how the EQ of each part fits together. Most EQs only see the channel they sit on. CARBON Q sees your whole mix.
CARBON Q is one EQ across your whole session.
At its heart CARBON Q is an eleven band EQ that works across your entire session. Put a MIX instance on your output channel and agents on your vocals, music, drums and bass and they'll connect instantly. From whichever instance you have open, you can see and control the EQ and volume balance of every channel, so each one is set with the rest of the mix in mind.
Smart Presets built from your actual audio
Loop the busiest part of your song, hit ANALYZE, and CARBON Q compares your mix against world class reference mixes.
It then brings up the ten closest Smart Presets. Each one sets the tonal balance and volume balance of every channel at the same time, taken from a mix that already works.
CARBON Q suggests the 10 most appropriate options, but there are also hundreds of presets to try out if you wish, meaning that you get a great starting point in seconds.
Turn any song you love into a preset
Drop a reference track into the preset browser and CARBON Q separates it into vocals, music, drums and bass.
It measures the tonal balance of each part and how loud each one sits against the rest, then turns all of that into a preset. Carbon Q analyses your mix, and understands the EQ and gain adjustments needed to get your track sounding like your imported reference track.
Take just the vocal balance from a favorite record, or use the drums from one reference and the bass from another. Stem separation and analysis run on your machine, so your audio is never uploaded.
Hear the real change
Every EQ move and preset change is level matched in real time. The only thing you hear is the change in tone, so a louder setting can never fool your ears. Max quality linear phase filters keep your transients clean with only 41 ms of latency.
Control that goes deeper
Switch to Mid/Side to clear low mids from the sides or add air without a harsh vocal, with both curves on screen at once. Dynamic Mode holds each channel to its target through the loud sections, pulling peaks back into line only when they go over.
Every instance has Lock, Link, Bypass and Mix controls, plus A/B states. There's full undo and a resizable interface. Meanwhile your DAW faders and automation stay exactly where you left them.
Built by a working mastering engineer
Mastering The Mix was founded in London by Tom Frampton, a mastering engineer whose credits include CamelPhat, Tiësto and Calvin Harris.
For ten years MTM has built intelligent mixing and mastering tools, and today it has around 400,000 customers. CARBON Q takes what Tom has learned from mastering thousands of records and puts that experience across your whole mix.
Try it free
CARBON Q runs on macOS and Windows in VST3, AU and AAX formats, with two license seats as standard.
And you can download a free 15 day trial AND save 30% with the intro offer until 6 November. Every purchase is covered by a 30-day money back guarantee.
CARBON Q launches on 6 October 6 and that intro price of 30% off has to end on 6 November 2026 – so don't delay! Plus loyalty customers will get extra discount on top when they log in.
Discover more at masteringthemix.com