BRUNSWICK

Ten-time Grammy award winning music mastering engineer Bob Ludwig moved to Portland in 1992 — at first reluctant to live north of Manhattan’s 96th street — but he now considers Maine home.

Ludwig spoke to an audience this month through an event hosted by the Brunswick Downtown Association about his own start as a trumpet player auditioning for the University of Rochester’s Eastman School of Music to working with some of the greatest talents in the music industry.

When he and his wife, Gail, decided to relocate to Maine to start the business, Ludwig said they were going with the thought of, “if the business fails, at least we’ll be in a place we like.” With the exception of the 1998 ice storm, Ludwig said they have been thrilled each day to live in the state, adding he’s now one of those Mainers who feel a sense of relief upon returning home.

After years of working in other studios, Ludwig started Gateway Mastering Studios in 1992. He said he wanted to keep the project under wraps, but ended up taking a phone call from a fellow master in California who said he heard Ludwig was in Portland. When asked how his friend knew this, he answered he had a relative in Bangor who read a newspaper article about it.

“It’s a small world,” he said.

When asked if there are any artists he hasn’t worked with yet that he would like to, Ludwig replied Prince used to be his go-to answer for that question, although he did work on one 12-inch disco record with the late musician.

“There are none left that I am dying to work with,” Ludwig said after a pause, but added Adele would be fun. Similarly, the only album he wished he worked on and didn’t was Pink Floyd’s, “The Wall.” Ludwig explained he had been asked to work on it, but had recently split with a girlfriend.

“ I didn’t think I could muster listening to depressing songs all day,” he said with a bit of a laugh, a decision he says he now regrets.

In recalling his early musical ambitions, he said a high school teacher convinced him to apply to the Eastman School of Music, at the University of Rochester in New York. He played the trumpet, and during his audition, said he was so nervous his knees were knocking together.

“I can’t believe they took me,” he said of his admission to the prestigious music school. He went on to earn his Bachelor’s degree and Master’s degree and was introduced to the recording department, where he recorded student and faculty concerts and recitals and high school musicals.

During a summer session recording workshop with Phil Ramone, a producer who worked with artists including Tony Bennett,

Barbara Streisand and Julian Lennon, he asked Ludwig to work with him in New York. It was from Ramone he learned the art of mastering.

“He was just an amazing person,” Ludwig said of his mentor. In his own role as a teacher, Ludwig has instructed just two people, Brian Lee and Adam Ayan, whom he calls his protege.

“They are the only two people on whole planet I have taught. They know all my secrets,” he said.

Ludwig said he doesn’t have interns or apprentices work in the studio because of the highly secretive nature of the business.

“You have keep secrets for a long period of time, and I can’t have somebody thinking, wow, Radiohead is working on a record and the rest of the world thinks they’re not.”

The day before that secret album was to be released, Ludwig checked for leaked news of the project, pleased to see there was no hint of it — the staff of eight kept the secret 100 percent, he said.

“ That happens all the time, there are tons of things I can’t tell you about,” he said, laughing.

In describing what he does as a mastering engineer, Ludwig said it is analogous to taking a photograph, and seeing the difference between a Walmart print of the photo and what a master print maker can do, working with different shades and details, the hue and ambiance of a picture. Ludwig said he does something similar, but works on the volume and clarity of the sound on a track. Ludwig said mastering is final creative step in a record recording process, sort of like the icing on the cake. He said the songs come individually, and the staff never gets to see the artwork because it hasn’t yet been decided on. Somebody may show him an album cover and ask, ‘did you do this?” and his response is usually, “ I don’t know, it wasn’t even titled when I worked on it.’

During a slide show of photographs of musicians at his studio he shared with the audience, he talked about some of his experiences working with various artists. Some of his favorite musicians include Jim James, of My Morning Jacket, calling him one of the most talented people, as well as Jeff Tweedy, from Wilco, describing a performance by him with just a guitar as captivating from start to finish.

“He is the Bob Dylan of our generation, writes fantastic lyrics, and is completely captivating,” he said.

Ludwig flipped through photographs of Joan Jett, Carly Simon, Glenn Frye, Leonard Cohen, who he said was a remarkable person, nearly without description of how great he is. At a photo of Paul Simon, Ludwig paused and said when Simon came in for a session, he wished he remembered the day it was, because he recalled watching Simon fill out a New York Times Crossword puzzle as fast as one can.

“ Even for a Monday, I was super impressed,” he said.

jlaaka@timesrecord.com

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