About M Media Audio
Austin, TX. Est. 1994. Plugin developer. Audio engineer. Same person.
We build plugins. We also run sessions.
M Media Audio is a single operation: native C++ DSP development and professional audio production, both active, both commercial, both built on the same 30-year foundation. The plugins are not a side project. The audio work is not a hobby. Every design decision in the software came out of something heard in a real tracking, mix or mastering session.
Alternate Timeline, Speaker Breaker, and Velvet Crush were developed in this studio. Calibrated against a reference library of 10,000+ commercial masters. Built in native C++. Shipped as VST3. These are not "inspired by" hardware tools. They are the product of hearing the same problems across thousands of sessions and solving them the right way.
The audio engineering goes back to Westwood One Radio in the late 1980s - broadcast-standard discipline, deadline pressure that does not forgive mistakes. Through the 1990s it moved to live front-of-house at Austin's major venues: Liberty Lunch, Steamboat, Cannibal Club, 5th Street Live. Hundreds of national acts. SXSW multi-venue runs. 170+ production projects since 2000. The plugins are what happens when that much time in the chair finally turns into software.
Built for the problems we actually had.
Every plugin started as a real problem in a real mastering session. Not a feature request. Not a gap in the market. Something we kept hitting, then fixed properly.
Alternate Timeline
Mastering character is not one thing. The 1960s sound different from the 1980s for specific analog reasons - transformer saturation curves, tape compression behavior, EQ topology. We wanted a single processor that could move between those eras intentionally instead of reaching for a dozen different emulations. Six decade presets, calibrated against 10,000+ commercial reference masters. Era Intensity and Wet/Dry for parallel blend. One tool, six decades of character.
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Speaker Breaker
Low-end translation is the problem everyone claims to have solved and almost nobody has. A mix that sounds tight on studio monitors falls apart on laptop speakers and earbuds because specific sub and bass bands are pulling too far forward in the spectral balance. Speaker Breaker monitors five bands relative to the full-band signal and corrects when any band pulls too far forward. No gain changes. No high-pass. Spectral correction that tightens the low end without touching anything else.
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Velvet Crush
Harshness in modern mixes concentrates in a narrow frequency range and arrives faster than a human ear can catch it during a session. Presence and air bands climb toward the full-band level and the result is brittleness that survives review and shows up on the client's earbuds. Velvet Crush monitors six presence and air bands in real time and pulls back before the harshness sets in. Three Character modes - Silk, Velvet, Air - control how tightly each band is watched. A Blend knob runs the full chain in parallel for surgical control.
Learn more →Native C++ DSP on JUCE. No shortcuts.
All three plugins are built in native C++ using the JUCE framework - the same framework used by Waves, Slate Digital, iZotope, and every other serious DSP shop. VST3 standard. 64-bit. No interpreted layers, no scripted wrappers, no middleware between the math and the audio.
The DSP decisions were made by ear in a studio with a 10,000+ track reference library, then implemented in code. Most plugin development goes the other direction: implement first, listen second. We had the listening infrastructure first. The code came after we knew exactly what the output should sound like.
Activation is handled through a license server we built ourselves. Encrypted activation over HTTPS. Three simultaneous activations per license. Offline activation available. No telemetry. Nothing phoning home during a session. The architecture is the same principle as our enterprise software products: the customer's data and workflow stay on their machine.
The 30-year parallel software engineering career is not incidental to this. C++, Go, Python, TypeScript, PHP, Java - all commercial and production-grade. General Motors UI architect: 60,000+ supplier portal, Angular microservices, 40+ developers mentored. Dell Technologies: internal workflow systems. The software competence is not borrowed from the audio career. Both have been active since the 1990s.
DSP and software stack
- C++ - native DSP, all three plugins
- JUCE - VST3 plugin framework
- CMake - cross-platform build system
- VST3 - 64-bit, Windows 10/11
- Custom license server - Go + PostgreSQL
- PayPal and Stripe webhook integration
- Encrypted activation - HTTPS, offline available
General software capability
- Python, Go, TypeScript, PHP, Java
- Angular v4-16, REST APIs, microservices
- AI and LLM integration - OpenAI, Claude, Ollama
- Docker, CI/CD, Linux server administration
- PostgreSQL, MySQL, Redis, MongoDB
- Certified ScrumMaster (CSM) - Scrum Alliance
- US federal vendor - UEI: M8H4W9L8K8P4
The studio - where the plugins were built and calibrated.
The plugins were not built in a test environment. They were built in a working mastering studio with a real analog signal chain and five reference monitoring systems. Every threshold, every band boundary, every Character mode response in all three plugins was tuned in this room against real program material.
The room runs a vintage Soundcraft analog console with Burr-Brown electronics - a hybrid chain that handles analog character work at the front end, with RME 24-channel conversion handling the digital side. Outboard dynamics and EQ: SSL, Empirical Labs Distressors, DBX, Valley People, Symetrix. The same chain most plugin emulations are trying to replicate. We have the original equipment, which means we know exactly what the emulation should sound like and when it is wrong.
The reference library is 10,000+ commercial masters across every genre: pop, hip-hop, metal, country, jazz, electronic, classical, broadcast. When Alternate Timeline's 1970s preset was being calibrated, the reference was not one 1970s album - it was dozens. The era presets reflect real spectral and dynamic behavior from that period, not a marketing description of what someone thought that era sounded like.
In parallel: Pro Tools and Cubase Pro as primary DAWs. Waves full suite, Slate Digital, IK Multimedia, iZotope RX, Ozone, T-RackS. Whisper AI for spoken-word transcript workflows. Python automation for batch processing and delivery. Services work and plugin development share the same room and the same reference infrastructure.
30+ years of sessions is what the plugins are calibrated against.
The plugin calibration is not based on a theory of what good audio sounds like. It is based on what good audio actually sounds like across 30+ years and tens of thousands of hours of real sessions. That is not something you can shortcut.
Westwood One Radio Network in the late 1980s: broadcast-standard audio editing for national syndication. Deadline pressure with no margin for error - the feed goes out in spec or it does not go out at all. Through the 1990s, live front-of-house at Austin's primary venues: Liberty Lunch, Steamboat, Cannibal Club, Mercado Caribe, 5th Street Live, Jelly Club. Hundreds of national and regional touring acts. Grandmaster Flash, Spin Doctors, Bob Schneider, Cadillac Tramps. SXSW showcase runs across multiple venues simultaneously.
M Media Audio opened in 2000. 170+ projects since then: studio albums, singles, podcasts, corporate media, digital campaigns, broadcast audio. 42 mastered tracks released across streaming platforms for Suprablaster, Jeff Michaels, and Black Steelies. The reference library was built track by track across all of it.
Career timeline
- Westwood One Radio Network - late 1980s broadcast engineering
- Austin live FOH - 1990s-2000s, hundreds of national acts
- SXSW multi-venue audio production
- Dell Technologies - software development (1995-1999)
- M Media Audio - 2000-present, 170+ projects
- General Motors - UI architect, SQMS/SCMS/SPPS, 60,000+ suppliers (2014-2023)
- 42 mastered tracks released on streaming platforms
- Alternate Timeline, Speaker Breaker, Velvet Crush - shipped 2026
Audio production services
- Mastering - $95/track, streaming and vinyl
- Mixing - $350/song, full chain
- Podcast production - raw to RSS-ready
- Audio editing and restoration
- Vinyl transfer and DDP prep
- Audio for video - mix to picture
- Batch and agency delivery
No subscription. Ever.
Every plugin ships with a perpetual license. One purchase, permanent ownership. No renewal dates, no cloud dependency, no monthly fee waiting in the background. Three simultaneous activations per license - studio desktop, laptop, backup machine. Manage from your account. Offline activation available on request.
This is a deliberate architecture decision, not a pricing strategy. The activation server is controlled by us. The license validation happens at activation time, not at session time. If the server goes down, your plugin still runs. If we close up shop, the license still works. This is how professional tools should be sold.
Perpetual License
Pay once. Yours forever.
3 Activations
Studio, laptop, and backup.
No Telemetry
Nothing phoning home mid-session.
Direct Support
A human responds. One business day.
Plugins or sessions - both are real work.
Pick a plugin, buy it, and it is yours. Or start a project and we will handle the audio engineering end to end.