MICHAEL ROMANOWSKI EARNS SIXTH GRAMMY

The acclaimed mastering engineer earned the award for Justin Gray's immersive album Immersed, mastered at Coast Mastering using a Focal-powered monitoring environment.

The Coast Mastering studio features a host of Focal speakers surrounding his mastering console including Focal Stella Utopia EM for the main front channels, and Focal Diablo Utopia EM for six of the surrounds.

Six-time Grammy®-winning engineer Michael Romanowski added his latest win for mastering the “Immersed” album by artist Justin Gray. The album won Best Immersive Audio Album in 2026, Romanowski mastered both the immersive and stereo formats for the release. As Chief Engineer and owner at Coast Mastering in Berkeley, CA., Romanowski has eleven Grammy nominations overall with two Best Engineered Album, Classical Grammys for stereo mastering on Mason Bates’ “Philharmonia Fantastique” and Chanticleer’s “Chanticleer Sings Christmas.” Over the past 30 years, Romanowski has mastered more than 4,000 albums from a wide variety of artists including George Strait, Fantastic Negrito, Bonnie Raitt, Alicia Keys, Prince, The Grateful Dead, and Tom Petty. The Coast Mastering studio features a host of Focal speakers surrounding his mastering console including Focal Stella Utopia EM for the main front channels, and Focal Diablo Utopia EM for six of the surrounds.

Commenting on his process for mastering Justin Gray’s immersive album, Romanowski says, “Justin stayed focused as the artist, and I totally appreciated that because we had that dialogue and he knew he was taken care of on the back side with the mastering. When I received the music files, I sat down, I listened to the immersive mixes, I didn't do anything until I listened all the way through and then I figured out how to go where I wanted to go.”

On his approach to mastering, Romanowski reveals, “I developed my workflow over the last 30 years as a minute by minute, day by day process: an evolution. The first thing a mastering engineer needs to think about as an objective is deliverables. What are the masters that need to be delivered, that need to be delivered in a way that’s best for duplication, replication, distribution? We know what the end result is, it’s the best form of the master from a technical standpoint. I have learned to develop two sets of opinions; one would be ‘What do I think it sounds like now?’ and ‘What do I think it could, or should, sound like when it’s done?’ And the process in between is the Mastering from the artistic side of things, and that’s the evolution: how do I get from opinion A to opinion B.”

“I’ve changed gear. I’ve had different rooms and monitoring systems, and tried all sorts of things that allow me to get the information I need to make good decisions; That’s the evolution process. And then I’m doing everything I can to add that extra one percent, that tiny little bit: conversion is a little bit different, resolution is a little bit different, cabling is a little bit different, signal flow: this piece of gear to this piece of gear is different than gear B to gear A. They all sound different when interacting and so my evolution is my signal path as well as my mindset.”

“The most important things I used for Justin‘s record were my room and myself, my experience, because these tell me what decisions to make.”

About his choice of Focal speakers, Stella Utopia and Diablo Utopia all powered by Bricasti amplifiers, Romanowski explains, “What I need as a mastering engineer is a speaker that tells me exactly what the music is and how it is presenting itself. Every decision I make in the studio is based on my perception, if my perception is off, then so are my decisions. I choose Focal speakers because they give me an honest audio picture of the music. The most important piece of equipment for me is the monitoring environment. I rely on Focal speakers every day, my reputation depends on them.”

Justin Gray, artist, engineer & producer on Immersed, commented on Michael Romanowski’s mastering of his album, “I have long admired Michael’s work. Over the years, he has been involved in many projects that I consider essential references in immersive audio, and I am continually inspired by every opportunity we have to collaborate. As an artist, mix engineer, and producer, I gained confidence knowing that the final mastering stage with Michael was always on the horizon.”

Discussing stereo versus immersive mastering, Romanowski offers, “I don’t think my stereo approach has changed because of Atmos in any way other than I’m finding the opportunities of the emergence of Atmos as a regular, predictable format—it’s not a fad, it is going to be there. So because Atmos is not going away, I have developed workflows around it, I’m finding that loudness and limited dynamic range don’t work in a spatial environment.”

“What we want out of Atmos, and other immersive formats, is a sense of space and the more you try to make it loud and limit the dynamic range, the less that space happens, because what you’re doing is bringing it closer into a point source in the middle of your head and that’s where you started in the first place. So we’re leaving it more relaxed and that has the benefit effect of having a more relaxed stereo presence too. So what I feel about the change of stereo mastering is that immersive audio has allowed people’s approaches to what they’re doing with stereo material to be a little less aggressive, and a little more relaxed. I really appreciate that because I’m a fan of being drawn into the music, rather than the music shouting at me.”

The “Immersed” album was mastered by Romanowski for a myriad of formats including: Dolby Atmos, Dolby, Stereo, Binaural, Dolby TrueHD, Auro-3D, Discrete Channel 7.1.4 LPCM, and Audio Definition Model Broadcast Wave Format (ADM BWF).

Michael Romanowski is a six-time GRAMMY Award winner, eleven-time nominee in both stereo and immersive mastering with a career spanning more than three decades and over 4,000 albums, working with artists such as Prince, Alicia Keys, Gloria Estefan, Josh Groban, George Strait, Vince Gill, and with movie scores including Star Wars, Dune, Indiana Jones, Dr. Strange, and more. 

In addition to his mastering work, Romanowski is a sought-after consultant and advisor for major technology companies including Dolby, Sony, Fraunhofer, and Google, helping to build and refine the creative tools that define today's immersive production environments. He has shared his knowledge at AES, NAMM, SXSW, Tape Op Potluck Con, AES Mexico, and AES Europe, and contributed to publications such as Mix Magazine and Electronic Musician. As a member of the Recording Academy, Michael has served as Chapter President, National Trustee, Co-Chair of Planning and Governance Committee, National Presidents Council and Co-chair of National Awards and Nominations Committee, Producers & Engineers Immersive Committee, Producers & Engineers Steering committee, and National Advisory Council to the Producers & Engineers Wing, among many other leadership roles.

Visit the Coast Mastering Studios website: https://www.coastmastering.com/