. They were spiked with gamma activity traceable to international standards and used for calibration verifications. A quantitative method of tuning MC calculations to experiment was developed based on a multidimensional chi-square paraboloid. - Highlights: • Preparation and spiking of traceable complex matrices in extended geometries. • Calibration of Ge gamma spectrometers for complex matrices. • Verification of gamma calibrations. • Comparison of semi-empirical, computational Monte Carlo, and transfer methods of Ge calibration. • Tuning of Monte Carlo calculations using a multidimensional paraboloid