In Part 1 of this interview, which announced that famed mastering engineer Bob Ludwig was retiring, Ludwig discussed his early days as a music-loving student, as a trumpet player, his graduation from Eastman College with a Master's degree in music performance, and how working with legendary engineer and producer Phil Ramone at A&R Studio awakened his interest in how records are made. In this second part, Ludwig talks about how he moved to Sterling Sound, then to Masterdisk, and finally how and…
search
The wall of Gold and Platinum Disc Awards, as displayed at the Gateway Mastering website.
Ludwig with his LP-cutting lathes at Masterdisk
Another new company, another new job – Masterdisk
When Ludwig joined Sterling, the facility got off to a fast start and "was really, really hot," with a streak of high-profile hit records. The founders, Hulko and Paschek, sold it to a public company, OCG Technology, which manufactured medical devices on Long Island. The advantage was a large umbrella ownership, easy access to lines of credit, and a corporate structure to handle risk and liability. OCG had a money-making division that gave the stock some sex appeal via its connection to…
At Gateway, Bob Ludwig's room has long been known for its giant monitor speakers. At first, it featured Duntech Sovereign 2001 loudspeakers on concrete pedestals connected to bedrock below the building and isolated from the room's floating floor. Adam Ayan now uses those in his mastering studio.
Since 1997, Ludwig has used EgglestonWorks Ivy speakers. He consulted on their development. "It's Bill Eggleston's design, Serial numbers 1&2. Sometimes I said a couple of things, but it's Bill's design. ... I haven't personally heard anything I like better."
The Ivy's are…
Bob Ludwig first worked with a digital recording in 1978. Telarc Records brought a Soundstream machine to Masterdisk, and he cut one of their early classical recordings. From that time forward, Ludwig worked with almost every format and key piece of equipment in digital sound's evolution.
"Soundstream and the 3M Digital system sounded good, early on," he said, but then the Compact Disc was launched, and Sony came to rule the digital roost. "When I was starting out with digital mastering, we had the first Sony systems that were going to be used for CD production. ... I remember…
Sidebar 5: Bob's Trophy Case
Aside from the gold and platinum records decorating every wall of his Gateway Mastering Studios facility, Bob Ludwig has quite a trophy case. He has mastered countless Gold and Platinum singles and albums plus 15 RIAA Diamond Award records.
Ludwig is most proud of his Audio Engineering Society Gold Medal, presented in 2015. He is also an AES Fellow.
He won 13 of the original TEC Awards, which was presented to a mastering engineer representing a year's best mastering work, and 11 of the newer TEC Awards, which include the mastering…
Alex Halberstadt (front) listens to the BAACH-SP Adio system at High End Munich. (Photo: Jason Victor Serinus)
If you're going to Germany to immerse yourself in big-city excitement—churning dance clubs, matterful contemporary art, visitors and food from around the world, and street life that goes on all night—you'll probably find it in Berlin. Though rents have been climbing and there's no shortage of dirty sidewalks and petty crime, the German capital remains one of the most youthful and vibrant cities in Europe, an art and culture center with large expatriate communities and endless…
In the hallway, I ran into composer, pianist, and HDtracks impresario David Chesky, who led me into the decidedly spare environs of the Theoretica Applied Physics room. Inside, a short, jovial man eagerly shook my hand. In case you ever feel like trash-talking Dr. Edgar Choueiri, you should know that he's the head of both the Electric Propulsion and Plasma Dynamics Laboratory and the 3D Audio and Applied Acoustics Lab at Princeton. He was in Munich to demonstrate a product called the BACCH-SP Adio. (For those playing along at home, "BACCH" stands for Band-Assembled Crosstalk Cancellation…
I'm going to tell a story about blind listening, because it illustrates what I consider the most important issue in today's audiophile environment. I'm going to skip the names of the participants because you probably know them. And I'm not going to name the components, because their role in this story is merely as symbols of their type. Here is what I'll reveal: We were playing LPs through an expertly curated, six-figure–priced sound system in a largish room that suited the large speakers perfectly.
The occasion was a "listening party" at a friend's apartment. The guest list included me…
Fun and danger: The Benz Gullwing SLR arrived in a swanky hardwood box with gold-plated screws securing a clear plexiglass top where, when I looked in, I could see no stylus guard protecting the SLR's exposed cantilever. This didn't scare me; I've installed more than a few cartridges without stylus protection, and I have never broken any. I have of course broken a few cantilevers by dropping tonearms, but those "droppings" happened long ago. My most recent cantilever mishaps resulted from removing recalcitrant stylus guards. I fear stylus guards.
The best thing about the Gullwing…
What Were Once Vices Are Now Habits—the 1974 album by those San Jose yacht-rock sages the Doobie Brothers—could also describe an audiophile's life.
The journey begins with booze and bong money spent instead on an entry-level turntable and cartridge; it did for me anyway. Then starts the churn, through many components and configurations seeking that elusive, blissful audio fix until finally we find our audio oasis, our own sonic peace, our gearhead nirvana. We achieve a system that satisfies our listening indulgences, whether it be based on streaming or spinning, class-D or tubes, with…