Robert C. Ludwig (born c. 1945) is an American mastering engineer. He has mastered recordings on all the major recording formats for all the major record labels, and on projects by more than 1,300 artists including Led Zeppelin, Queen, Jimi Hendrix, Bryan Ferry, Paul McCartney, Nirvana, Bruce Springsteen and Daft Punk [1] resulting in over 3,000 credits. [2] He is the recipient of numerous Grammy and TEC Awards.
At the age of eight in South Salem, New York, Ludwig was so fascinated with his first tape recorder, that he used to make recordings of whatever was on the radio. Ludwig is a classical musician by training, having obtained his bachelor's and master's degrees from the Eastman School of Music of the University of Rochester, New York. He was also involved in the sound department at Eastman, as well as being principal trumpet of the Utica Symphony Orchestra. [3] Inspired by Phil Ramone when he came to Eastman to teach a summer recording workshop, Ludwig ended up working as his assistant. Afterwards, he was contacted and offered work with Ramone at A&R Recording. Together, they did sessions on projects with The Band, Peter, Paul & Mary, Neil Diamond and Frank Sinatra.
After a few years at A&R, Ludwig received an offer from Sterling Sound, where he eventually became a vice president. After seven years at Sterling, he moved to its competitor, Masterdisk, where he was vice president and chief engineer. In December 1992, Ludwig left Masterdisk to start his own record mastering facility in Portland, Maine, named Gateway Mastering Studios, Inc. He, along with Adam Ayan are the two mastering engineers who work at Gateway Mastering.
Ludwig's mastering credits include albums for many major classic artists, such as the Kronos Quartet, and rock acts, including Jimi Hendrix, Phish, Motley Crüe, Megadeth, Metallica, Gloria Estefan, Nirvana, The Strokes, Queen, U2, Sting, The Police, Janet Jackson, Mariah Carey, Beck, Guns N' Roses, Richie Sambora, Tool, Simple Minds, Bryan Ferry, Tori Amos, Bonnie Raitt, Mark Knopfler, Leonard Cohen, David Bowie, Paul McCartney, Bruce Springsteen, the Bee Gees, Madonna, Supertramp, Will Ackerman, Pet Shop Boys, Radiohead, Elton John, Daft Punk [1] and Alabama Shakes. [4]
He has occasionally undertaken longer projects, such as remastering the entire back catalogues of Rush, Dire Straits, Creedence Clearwater Revival and the Rolling Stones. [5]
Ludwig cites his most musically satisfying projects as: the CD reissue of Music From Big Pink (The Band), There's a Riot Goin' On (Sly and the Family Stone), Led Zeppelin II , Painted from Memory (Bacharach & Costello), Spirit (Jewel), Loreena McKennitt, and Ancient Voices of Children (George Crumb).
Ludwig remains an active influence in the music industry. As a judge for the 8th and 10th-14th annual Independent Music Awards, his contributions helped assist the careers of upcoming independent artists. [6] Ludwig is active in the Audio Engineering Society and is a past chairman of the New York AES section. He was Co-Chair of the Producers and Engineers Wing for 5 years and is presently on the Advisory Council of the P&E Wing of National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. [7]
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| Year | Nominee / work | Award | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2003 | The Rising | Album Of The Year | Nominated |
| 2005 | Avalon | Best Surround Sound Album | Nominated |
| 2006 | Brothers In Arms - 20th Anniversary Edition | Won | |
| In Your Honor | Nominated | ||
| 2008 | Lorraine Hunt Lieberson Sings Peter Lieberson: Neruda Songs | Best Classical Album | Nominated |
| 2009 | In Rainbows | Album of the Year | Nominated |
| Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends | Nominated | ||
| 2012 | Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs (Super Deluxe Edition) | Best Surround Sound Album | Won |
| Music Is Better Than Words | Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical | Nominated | |
| 2013 | Ashes & Fire | Nominated | |
| Love Is a Four Letter Word | Nominated | ||
| Babel | Album of the Year | Won | |
| Blunderbuss | Nominated | ||
| 2014 | Random Access Memories | Won | |
| Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical | Won | ||
| Annie Up | Nominated | ||
| "Get Lucky" | Record of the Year | Won | |
| Charlie Is My Darling - Ireland 1965 | Best Historical Album | Won | |
| 2015 | G I R L | Album of the Year | Nominated |
| Morning Phase | Won | ||
| Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical | Won | ||
| Bass & Mandolin | Nominated | ||
| Beyoncé | Best Surround Sound Album | Won | |
| 2016 | Sound & Color | Album of the Year | Nominated |
| Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical | Won | ||
| 2017 | Are You Serious | Nominated | |
| 2018 | Is This the Life We Really Want? | Nominated | |
| 2020 | Scenery | Nominated | |
| Riley: Sun Rings | Best Engineered Album, Classical | Won | |
| Kverndokk: Symphonic Dances | Best Immersive Audio Album | Nominated | |
| The Savior | Nominated |
2012: Association of Professional Recording Services Sound Fellowship - received 27 October 2012 [9]
2015: AES Gold Medal [10]
Glyn Thomas Johns is an English musician, recording engineer and record producer.
Philip Ramone was a South African-born American recording engineer, record producer, violinist and composer, who in 1958 co-founded A & R Recording, Inc., a recording studio with business partner Jack Arnold at 112 West 48th Street, New York, upstairs from the famous musicians' watering hole, Jim & Andy's, and several doors east of Manny's Music. The success of the original A & R Recording allowed it to expand into several studios and a record production company. He was described by Billboard as "legendary", and the BBC as a "CD pioneer".
Charles R. Cross is a Seattle-based music journalist, author and editor. He is primarily known for his coverage of Bruce Springsteen, Kurt Cobain and Jimi Hendrix.
Edwin H. Kramer is a South African-English recording producer and engineer. He has collaborated with several artists now in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, including the Beatles, David Bowie, Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix, the Kinks, Kiss, Led Zeppelin, the Rolling Stones, John Mellencamp, and Carlos Santana.
Randy Craig Wolfe, known as Randy California, was an American guitarist, singer and songwriter and one of the original members of the rock group Spirit, formed in 1967.
Rupert Neville Hine was an English musician, songwriter and record producer. He produced albums for artists including Rush, Kevin Ayers, Tina Turner, Howard Jones, Saga, The Fixx, Bob Geldof, Thompson Twins, Stevie Nicks, Chris de Burgh, Suzanne Vega, Underworld, Duncan Sheik, Formula and Eleanor McEvoy. He also recorded eleven albums, including those billed under his own name, the pseudo-band name Thinkman, and as a member of the band Quantum Jump.
Masterdisk is an American multimedia company in New York, located at 8 John Walsh Boulevard in Peekskill. They provide production services such as audio mastering, vinyl cutting and enhanced CD and DVD production.
Electric Lady Studios is a recording studio in Greenwich Village, New York City. It was commissioned by rock musician Jimi Hendrix in 1968 and designed by architect John Storyk and audio engineer Eddie Kramer by 1970. Hendrix spent only ten weeks recording in Electric Lady before his death that year, but it quickly became a famed studio used by many top-selling recording artists from the 1970s onwards, including Led Zeppelin, Stevie Wonder, and David Bowie.
Anthony C. Bongiovi is an American record producer and recording engineer.
The loudness war refers to the trend of increasing audio levels in recorded music, which reduces audio fidelity and — according to many critics — listener enjoyment. Increasing loudness was first reported as early as the 1940s, with respect to mastering practices for 7" singles. The maximum peak level of analog recordings such as these is limited by varying specifications of electronic equipment along the chain from source to listener, including vinyl and Compact Cassette players. The issue garnered renewed attention starting in the 1990s with the introduction of digital signal processing capable of producing further loudness increases.
George Chkiantz is a British recording engineer, based in London, who has been responsible for the engineering on a number of well-known albums, many of which are considered classics, owing in part to the quality of the recordings.
John Storyk, a registered architect and acoustician, is a founding partner of Walters-Storyk Design Group. Soon to celebrate his 50th anniversary as an innovative recording studio designer, he began his career in 1968 with Electric Lady Studios for Jimi Hendrix in New York City. That studio continues to serve as a prolific catalyst for Gold & Platinum hits for stars ranging from Adele to Daft Punk and Ed Sheeran. Storyk and his WSDG associates have provided design, system integration, and construction supervision services for almost 4000 professional audio recording and video production/post-production studios, performance venues, sports, houses of worship and educational facilities. WSDG is an eleven-time winner of the prestigious TEC Award for outstanding achievement in Acoustics/Facility Design. Including, most recently, three consecutive wins: the 30th Annual (2015) for the Berklee College of Music, 160 Massachusetts Avenue, Boston, MA.; The 31st Annual (2016) The Church Studios London for multi-Grammy & Academy Award-winning producer Paul Epworth; and the 32nd Annual (2017) Boston Symphony Orchestra Control Room. To date thirty WSDG studio design projects, have competed for TEC Awards since the event debuted in 1985. Beijing’s 55TEC Studios, WSDG’s 2018 nominee opened in May 2017 and charted nearly a dozen China Top-ten hits in its first ten months including six #1’s. WSDG maintains a staff of fifty designers and engineers, and offices in New York City, Washington, D.C., San Francisco, Los Angeles, Miami, Buenos Aires, Belo Horizonte, Basel, Berlin, Beijing, Barcelona, Mexico City, Mumbai, and St. Petersburg.[1]
Robert Musso is a New York City-based guitarist, composer, engineer, and producer. He is the founder of the independent record label MuWorks as well as the record label - MussoMusic.com. Over the course of a 40 - year career, Musso has produced, mixed, remixed, played on, written, or contributed to over 2000 records, CDs, movie soundtracks, on every continent in the world except Antarctica.
Seven Ages of Rock is a BBC Two series, co-produced by BBC Worldwide and VH1 Classic in 2007 about the history of rock music.
Roy Joel Cicala was an American producer, engineer, songwriter and musician. His body of work includes over 10 Platinum Records for producing, writing, engineering and management for talent from the 1970s through 2014.
Scott E. Hull is a mastering engineer based in New York City, and the owner of Masterdisk.
James Kelly Robinson II was an American recording engineer, record producer and musician. He was best known for his engineering techniques with both analogue and digital audio recordings with prominent popular pop and rock records in American music from the late 1960s to the present. In addition to his recording expertise, Robinson was also an accomplished musician in his own right and had been awarded gold records as both a saxophonist and bass guitarist.
Gregory Calbi is an American mastering engineer at Sterling Sound, New Jersey, United States.
George Marino was an American mastering engineer known for working on albums by rock bands starting in the late 1960s.
Peter Doell is an American recording and mastering engineer known for his work with Miles Davis, Toto, Céline Dion and The Beach Boys. Doell has been a staff engineer at Capitol Studios, Sunset Sound Recorders and Universal Mastering Studios West. His film and TV work includes Road To Perdition, Black Hawk Down and Monsters, Inc., American Idol, The Voice and Empire.
