Gateway Mastering

04/08/2020

Hal Willner, Music Producer and Longtime 'SNL' Music Supervisor, Dead at 64

Bob writes "My client and good friend Wal Willner died of the Coronavirus-19 disease. I've mastered a fair amount of Hal's productions thru the years. He was one of those people with whom I could share a deep musician-to -musician dialog. A master of many genres. A supreme talent. He will be missed and no one is going to replace him."

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/hal-willner-obituary-979949/

Producer behind Lou Reed and Marianne Faithfull staged numerous tribute albums and was pivotal in the career of Jeff Buckley

04/01/2020

"Fear Inoculum" by Tool wins the world-wide Dynamic Range Day prize!

01/27/2020

Bob won his 12th Grammy!

Sun Rings, Kronos String Quartet's 2002 collaboration with composer Terry Riley, won the Grammy Award for Best Engineered Album, Classical.

The album was engineered by Leslie Ann Jones; mixed by John Kilgore, Judy Sherman, and David Harrington; and mastered by Robert C. Ludwig. On nonesuch Records!

Photo: John Kilgore and Leslie Ann Jones on stage accepting the award.

12/17/2019

GRAMMY.com

We have been late announcing our presence at the Grammy Awards!

Bob has 4 nominations for physical Grammys:

Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical (Scenery by Emily King),
Best Engineered Album, Classical (Riley: Sun Rings, Kronos Quartet)
He is competing with himself in the Best Immersive Audio Album (Kverndokk:Symphonic Dances) & (The Savior, A Bad Think).

Bob's clients are nominated for:

Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album (Si_Andrea Bocelli & Look Now_Elvis Costello)
Best Metal Performance (7empest_Tool)
Best Rock Song (Fear Inoculum_Tool)
Best Alternative Music Album (Anima_Thom Yorke)
Best Song for Visual Media (Ballad of the Lonesome Cowboy_Randy Newmann Toy Story 4)
Best Boxed... Package (Anima_Thom Yorke)
Best Film Music (Anima_Thom Yorke)

Adam Ayan's clients are well represented among many genres:
Pop (Lana Del Rey, albeit only 1 track),
World Music (Nathalie Joachim with the Spektral Quartet),
Contemporary Instrumental (Lettuce)latin
Latin Rock ( iLe )
Tropical Latin (Juan Luis Guerra)
Tropical Latin (Marc Anthony)
Country (Thomas Rhett)
Country (Brooks & Dunn with Luke Combs).

Congratulations to all our clients' artistry!

www.Grammy.com

As the world's leading society of music professionals, the Recording Academy is dedicated to celebrating, honoring, and sustaining music's past, present, and future.

12/17/2019

Congrats to Cold Chisel for coming on the charts at #1 in Australia. Jimmy Barnes's band have been charting for 38 years.
Congratulations also to Kevin Shirley, co-producer & engineer extraordinary!

12/02/2019

Bob says "I can't remember the last time I mastered the #1 and #2 top iTunes store albums. Today I have the new #1_Frozen II, #2_Frozen II- Deluxe, #27_Frozen I.

It's also snowing outside for the first time this season!"

10/31/2019

SoundBard – Bob Ludwig Receives Inaugural dCS Legends Award

Here is more press on the dCS Legends Award with some new pictures to see.

http://www.soundbard.com/soundbard/bob-ludwig-receives-inaugural-dcs-legends-award/?fbclid=IwAR2NnLF3LvgsIEnzvrRKRMz-uP9d7A1aQBmDFwPujyJUIZlb4tfG_jUcEro

10/18/2019

Bob wrote:

I was so honored. During this year’s Audio Engineering Society convention dCS, a great UK high-resolution audio manufacturer, joined with the Recording Academy’s Producers and Engineers Wing to present me with the first dCS Legends Award.

I don’t know who put me in the front of a line with these other engineers who really are amazing:

dCS will also honor in the coming year: Elliot Scheiner, Chuck Ainlay, John Newton, Leslie Ann Jones, Frank Filipetti, Mark Wilder and George Massenburg.
Honorees who were not able to attend: Tony Faulkner, James Guthrie and our Godfather, Al Schmitt!

Elliot puts his (our) hand on the late Ed Cherney's shoulder. Ed is another honoree of the dCS Legend Award. Much to our continuing sorrow and our great sense of loss, Ed passed away on October 22.

All of our hearts go out to his wife Rose.

09/12/2019

Rolling Stones Announce 'Let It Bleed' 50th-Anniversary Edition

While “you can’t always get what you want...” on November 15th you CAN get The Rolling Stones ‘Let It Bleed’ stereo and mono box set remastered!

This was originally going to be released on Nov. 1st but now it is November 15th!

https://ultimateclassicrock.com/rolling-stones-let-it-bleed-50th-anniversary/

The Rolling Stones will release a 50th-anniversary edition of 'Let It Bleed' in November 2019.

09/07/2019

Bruce Springsteen Releases Official 'Pièce De Résistance' Album

Adam Ayan mastered the often bootlegged Bruce Springsteen September 19th, 1978, concert at the Capitol Theatre in Passaic, New Jersey. Newly mixed from the multi-tracks in hi resolution digital. It’s a great show!

https://www.spin.com/2019/09/bruce-springsteen-piece-de-resistance-album/?utm_source=share-email&utm_medium=button

Bruce Springsteen has released an official version of his widely bootlegged 'Pièce De Résistance' New Jersey performance on September 19, 1978.

09/03/2019

The hits just keep on coming!
This week in Billboard, first week, coming in the TOP ALBUM Chart & the ARTIST 100 chart at #1!

Lionel Richie - Hello From Las Vegas - LIVE
Congratulations to Lionel and his engineer Dirk Vanoucek.

08/30/2019

Tool's 'Fear Inoculum' Is a Transcendent Return: Review

Bob says:

"I am so privileged and proud:

Today is finally the day the whole Tool album is released.

Instant #1 on the iTunes Chart today. Tool and engineer Joe Barresi are so amazing. The music is so good. When you listen you will notice it is not squashed!! Yes, one can have a #1 record without the dynamic range being smashed to 4 dB.

https://www.spin.com/2019/08/tool-fear-inoculum-review/

It’s been a long wait for the new Tool album—and it’s been worth it. On 'Fear Inoculum,' Tool’s first album in 13 years, the band remain defiantly contrary. Read our review.

08/23/2019

Slipknot Hits No. 1 On Billboard Artist 100 Chart

Thanks to the truly amazing work of Joe Barresi and the incredible talents of the band, Slipknot is #1 this week!

Slipknot has really world-class drumming by Jay Weinberg who is Max Weinberg's son! Bob mastered about 4 albums with Max playing with the E Street Band before Jay was even born!

https://www.billboard.com/articles/business/chart-beat/8527903/slipknot-no-1-artist-100-char

Slipknot re-enters the Billboard Artist 100 chart (dated Aug. 24) at No. 1 to become the top musical act in the U.S. for the first time, as the group's sixth studio album, We Are Not Your Kind, launches atop the Billboard 200 with 118,000 equivalent album units, according to Nielsen Music.

07/19/2019

Down the Rabbit Hole With an Off-Kilter Thom Yorke

Today the The New York Times printed a long, wonderful review of Anima, a Netflix short musical film directed by Paul Thomas Anderson.

It stars Thom Yorke of Radiohead doing a lot of acting and dancing! The mind bending music is by Thom York, produced by the amazing Nigel Godrich.

If you watch the film on Netflix to the bitter end, you will see Gateway Mastering's credits on each of the 3 pieces: "Not The News","Traffic" and "Dawn Chorus". We were thrilled to be a part of their artitic vision.

https://nyti.ms/2O4fe9p

The dance in the short film for “Anima” is worthy of a singer who has long demonstrated an intuitive feel for movement.

06/20/2019

‘Toy Story 4’: Your Favorite Animated Toy Franchise Does It Again

Bob was privileged to work on the soundtrack of Toy Story 4 for Disney Animation! "I can't wait to see it, I only know the music!"
https://www.rollingstone.com/movies/movie-reviews/toy-story-4-woody-buzz-lightyear-848862/

The fourth chapter in the Disney/Pixar series is still flying high on visual pow, pinwheeling fun and soulful feeling

05/24/2019

Amy Ray on the road with a wide-reaching, rootsy record - mainetoday

Writer Aimsel Ponti gave Adam Ayan a nice shout-out about his mastering of "Holler", The Indigo Girls Amy Ray's latest solo album. It was in yesterdfay's arts section of the Portland Press Herald.

Give it a listen, Adam was very enthusiastic about the album.

Catch Amy July 24 at Stone Mountain Arts Center in Brownfield, Maine.

https://mainetoday.com/maine_music/face-the-music/amy-ray-on-the-road-with-holler/

The Indigo Girl talks about 'Holler,' released in the fall, before her sold-out show in Portland next week.

03/31/2019

Read Bryan Ferry’s Hall of Fame Speech on Behalf of Roxy Music

Bryan Ferry & Roxy Music gave Bob a nice shoutout in their Rock and Roll Hall of Fame acceptance speech. Thank you Bryan!

“We’ve always had a great team behind the scenes, including our producers Rhett Davies, Chris Thomas, John Punter and Pete Sinfield. … And the master of mastering Bob Ludwig.”

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/bryan-ferry-rock-hall-of-fame-speech-roxy-music-814722/

The group appeared together for the first time since their final reunion shows in 2011

03/16/2019

High resolution music from an iPhone!

Today Bob was listening to the high resolution Tedeschi Trucks Band album he mastered. He heard it at 96kHz/24bit using TIDAL-MQA streaming software, the Apple USB camera-adaptor and the Audioquest Dragonfly-Red MQA DAC.

03/12/2019

The great Hal Blaine passed away at 90.
This is a picture of Hal and Bob at SXSW during the screening of The Wrecking Crew documentary. Bob was so happy to have met him.

https://variety.com/2019/music/news/hal-blaine-studio-drummer-dies-at-90-1203160849/

03/08/2019

Bob Ludwig: The Mastering Engineer's Mastering Engineer! - Warren Huart: Produce Like A Pro

Warren also spoke with Bob Ludwig!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJIfEhMJt5M&t=1699s

➡️➡️Check out Gateway Mastering here: http://www.gatewaymastering.com ➡️➡️Follow Bob On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/gatewaymastering/ Bob Ludwig is an...

03/08/2019

Adam Ayan: Mastering Paul McCartney, Katy Perry... - Warren Huart: Produce Like A Pro

Warren Huart | Record Producer (Produce like a Pro) paid Gateway Mastering Studios a visit!
He did a nice interview with Adam Ayan.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=auM1BQw36yM&t=13s

Adam Ayan is a GRAMMY-, 5x Latin GRAMMY-, and TEC Award-winning mastering engineer who works out of Bob Ludwig’s Gateway Mastering in Portland, Maine. Adam g...

02/19/2019

Artist Laurie Anderson Wins Her First Grammy for an Album Inspired by the Devastation of Hurricane Sandy | artnet News

During the recent Grammy Awards show our very long time friend Laurie Anderson won her first Grammy for her stunning work: "Landfall" (with Kronos Quartet). Congratulations, Laurie!

https://news.artnet.com/art-world/laurie-anderson-wins-grammy-1462201

Avant-garde artist/musician Laurie Anderson won her first Grammy for Landfall, a Hurricane Sandy-inspired collaboration with Kronos Quartet.

12/12/2018

Ancestral Voices Roundtable Webcast | Library of Congress

The very oldest field recording in the The Library of Congress's cylinder collection is, of all things, the Passamaquoddy tribal nation of Maine recorded at their home near Calis, Maine about 1890, 129 years ago.

Check out the panel discussion from June the Library JUST released today about these amazing recordings. Skip to about 35:00 to hear some of the cylinders. Wow!

http://www.loc.gov/today/cyberlc/feature_wdesc.php?rec=8530&loclr=eanw

This panel discussion highlights a collaborative initiative to digitally restore, provide access to and curate the oldest recordings in the Library of Congress collections, the 1890s wax cylinder recordings of the Passamaquoddy tribal nation of Main ...

12/11/2018

Queen's 'Bohemian Rhapsody' is now the most-streamed song from the 20th century

We are thrilled to have mastered the most streamed song from the 20th century.

The stream is from the remastered Queen albums from several years ago as well as many hits from Gateway Mastering's Adam Ayan's Bohemian Rhapsody movie soundtrack!

https://www.cnn.com/2018/12/11/entertainment/queen-bohemian-rhapsody-streams/index.html

In the battle for 20th-century streaming glory, Queen reigns supreme.

11/23/2018

Desert Island Discs: What Are Your Top 5 Albums?

Adam Ayan was recently heard on Maine Public Broadcasting picking his 5 desert island discs for "Maine Calling" hosted by Keith Shortfall. Also on the segment was our client Spencer Albee. It sounds like a lot of fun was had by all.

http://www.mainepublic.org/post/desert-island-discs-what-are-your-top-5-albums#stream/0

Which are the five albums you’d choose if you could only listen to 5? Which 5 records or artists had the greatest impact on you musically? Get ready for

11/20/2018

Another #1 on the Billboard 200 for Gateway Mastering! Gateway’s own Adam Ayan mastered Kane Brown’s latest release “Experiment” - it debuts this week at #1.

11/16/2018

Gateway’s own Adam Ayan was part of 4 #LatinGRAMMY Award winning records at last night’s Latin GRAMMYs!! Aymee Nuviola, Pedro Capo, Carlos Vives, and Maluma!! This makes 46 (!) Grammy/Latin Grammy Award winning recordings to his credit to date!!

11/15/2018

How Did Infamous Mariah Carey Bomb ‘Glitter’ Just Climb to Top of Charts?

Gateway Mastering Studios is #1, #7 & #10 on the iTunes "Top Album" charts right now.

Amazingly the #1 album is an album Bob mastered for Mariah many years ago, showing the fan power of the #JusticeforGlitter movement. Mariah Carey has the best fans! BTW, #7 is Queen's Greatest Hits and #10 is the Bohemian Rhapsody (The Original Soundtrack) album Adam Ayan and Bob did.

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/mariah-carey-glitter-number-one-justice-for-glitter-756062/

On the eve of the release of her 15th studio album, the #JusticeforGlitter movement offers retribution for a nearly career-ending moment

11/07/2018

Gateway’s @Adam Ayan mastered The Elovaters #1 album “Defy Gravity!” The album debuted at #1 on the Billboard Reggae Album chart. With his work with The Elovaters, his early 2000s work for Bob Marley and with the Marley family, as well as recent mastering for The Movement and The Cat Empire, reggae is becoming a regular thing for him! #reggaemusic

11/05/2018

Andrea Bocelli Achieves First-ever U.S. No.1 Album Alongside Unprecedented International Chart Success - UMG

Gateway has another international #1 album!
It is Andrea Bocelli's new album "Si" on Universal Music Group. For the first time in Andrea's long career it is coming in at #1 on the Billboard 200 Chart. Bob and the staff worked with iconic record producer Bob Ezrin to create this amazing recording.

https://www.universalmusic.com/andrea-bocelli-achieves-first-ever-u-s-no-1-album-alongside-unprecedented-international-chart-success/

Andrea Bocelli ‘Sì’ Debuts at No. 1 on Billboard 200 Chart Universal Music Group labels Decca and Universal Music Classics Achieve Historic Sales and Streams on Both Sides of the Atlantic NEW YORK, November 05, 2018 – In the year of his 60th birthday and almost a quarter century since his deb...

10/28/2018

Tape Op Podcast

John Baccigaluppi, Publisher of Tape Op Magazine just issued a podcast with our dear friend Bob Clearmountain, probably the world's greatest mixer. I hope you will check it out. It is always a privilege to work on Bob's creations.

Our favorite line:
Bob C: " It doesn’t seem like I’m doing anything, to me. It’s like ‘why can’t ANYone do this?…it seems so simple…’”

https://tapeop.com/podcasts/episode-21-bob-clearmountain

Episode 21: Bob Clearmountain - Hosted by Larry Crane

09/29/2018

A client sent some music with a 3 Hz oscillation by mistake. It passed thru the console, power amplifiers and it was beautifully reproduced by our speakers!

09/29/2018

Truly a full range speaker

EgglestonWorks Ivy speaker reproducing clients 3Hz oscillation mistake!

09/26/2018

Gateway's own, Adam Ayan had the pleasure of mastering several of the 19th Annual Latin GRAMMYs nominated recordings! Including recordings for: Aymee Nuviola, Raquel Sofia, Pedro Capo, Maluma, and Carlos VIves. Best of luck!

08/14/2018

August 2018 marks 20 years at Gateway Mastering for mastering engineer Adam Ayan! Adam started at Gateway on August 3rd, 1998, as a production engineer, then quickly became Bob Ludwig's direct assistant. Adam is one of only 2 engineers to ever be directly mentored by Bob. Not long after working as his assistant, Bob and Adam both realized he had the ears and aptitude for mastering, and Adam began mastering projects of his own and developing his own clientele. This of course ultimately lead to his mastering room opening at Gateway in August 2001, just 3 years after his arrival. Adam has mastered countless projects for many of the best recording artists around the world, and has won several Recording Academy / GRAMMYs and other achievements along the way. Here's to another 20 years!