| Matt Colton | |
| Birth Name: | Matt Colton |
| Alias: | The Alchemist |
| Birth Date: | 1975 3, df=yes |
| Occupation: | Mastering engineer |
| Years Active: | 1997–present |
Matt Colton (born 30 March 1975) is an English mastering engineer and member of the mastering group of the Music Producers Guild. He has mastered recordings for artists such as Muse, Coldplay, James Blake, George Michael, Hot Chip, Gary Numan, Peter Gabriel, Flume, Erasure, and Depeche Mode.
He began his mastering career as an engineer at Porky's Mastering in London, run by George 'Porky' Peckham in 1997 where he worked with a diverse range of artists from Aphex Twin's Rephlex Records to Kylie Minogue, and has also worked at Optimum Mastering, Alchemy Soho and AIR Studios where he cut the vinyl masters for Coldplay's Mylo Xyloto, remastered George Michael's Faith, and worked on the debut album by James Blake.
In 2012 Colton rejoined Alchemy Mastering as a director and engineer, mastering James Blake's Mercury Prize-winning second album Overgrown, Hot Chip's Why Make Sense?, and Leftfield's Alternative Light Source. Colton is one of the few mastering engineers in the world to offer half speed vinyl mastering, a technique which, although time-consuming, can offer much improved vinyl sound quality. He mastered the vinyl release for the number one album Drones by Muse at half speed, as well as remastering Peter Gabriel's first four solo albums [1] and his upcoming album i/o.
Colton was awarded the Music Producers Guild (MPG) Mastering Engineer of the year award in 2013.[2] He has lectured on mastering at various institutions including the London Electronic Music Event, Prism's Mic to Mastering tour, Alchemea College in London, and dBS Music Technology college in Bristol.[3]