phantom

Phantom

Makes Claude a professional audio engineer.

Phantom gives Claude ears. It's an audio engineering system that combines measurement tools, professional mixing and mastering methodology, genre reference profiles, and Reaper DAW integration. Everything works through Claude Code.

Drop in your stems. Claude analyzes every file: spectral balance, loudness, dynamics, stereo width, phase coherence, frequency masking between instruments, and problems like clipping, hum, and noise. Then it makes the same decisions an experienced engineer would. Where to cut, what to compress, how to route, when to send it back for more work.

Without Claude, Phantom is a capable CLI analysis tool. With Claude, it becomes a full mixing and mastering workflow.

What It Can Do

Diagnose before you mix. Load 15 stems, run one command. Phantom catches phase cancellation between kick mics, sample rate mismatches across files, 60 Hz hum on the bass DI, and frequency masking where guitar and vocals fight at 3 kHz. All before you touch a fader.

Mix against a reference. A/B your mix against any reference track or genre profile. Get per-dimension deviation: "Your vocal is 2 dB quieter at 2-4 kHz, low end is 3 dB heavy below 100 Hz, stereo width is narrower than the reference." Claude closes the gap with targeted EQ and level adjustments.

Master for every platform in one pass. Claude builds the full chain: HPF, corrective EQ, glue compression, tonal shaping, stereo imaging, limiting. Then it renders three masters. Spotify at -14 LUFS, Apple Music at -16 LUFS, and vinyl with mono bass, de-essing, and HF rolloff at 16 kHz. Different loudness targets, different format constraints, same session.

Solve problems by measurement, not guesswork. "The mix sounds muddy" becomes "4 dB buildup at 300 Hz across bass, guitar, and keys. Cut bass at 300 Hz by 3 dB, cut guitar at 250-350 Hz by 2 dB." Every recommendation is backed by a number.

Set up sessions from a template. Tell Claude the genre and stem count. It builds the folder hierarchy, bus routing, aux sends (reverb, delay, parallel compression), sidechain routing, color coding, and gain staging. Ready to mix.

Design creative effects. "I want Tool-style vocal distortion" or "Make the guitars sound like shoegaze." Claude builds the chain: saturation type, drive amount, chain order, parallel blend level. All calibrated by measurement.

How It Works

Four layers that work together:

1. Measurement. 17 MCP tools that quantify your audio: spectrum, loudness (EBU R128), dynamics, stereo field, phase coherence, frequency masking between stems, and problems like clipping, hum, DC offset, sibilance, and room resonances.

2. Methodology. Five domain expert skills that encode how professional engineers actually think. Structured decision-making workflows: when to use FET vs VCA compression, how to read crest factor to choose a handling strategy, when a mix needs more work vs when it's ready for mastering.

3. Reference. Nine genre profiles with target loudness, spectral balance, dynamics conventions, and stereo width standards. Your mix gets compared against professional benchmarks for your genre.

4. Execution. Reaper DAW integration via MCP. Claude inserts EQ, sets compression ratios, builds sidechain routing, writes automation, and renders deliverables.

Try It

No install needed. Run this on any audio file:

uvx phantom-audio analyze your-track.wav

Or install it:

uv tool install phantom-audio --python 3.13
phantom analyze your-track.wav

Point it at any WAV file. You'll get a full spectral, loudness, dynamics, stereo, phase, and problem analysis in about a second.

To use with Claude, add to your MCP config (.mcp.json):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "phantom": {
      "command": "phantom-mcp",
      "args": []
    }
  }
}

Install the Claude Code plugin for domain expert skills:

claude plugin install phantom/plugin

Then talk to Claude:

"Analyze my stems and tell me what needs fixing before I start mixing."

"Compare my master against this reference track and show me what's off."

"Set up a mixing session for a 5-stem rock track with parallel drum compression."

"Is this mix ready for mastering, or does it need more work?"

Analysis Tools