The first thing you notice upon walking into Gateway Mastering Studios are all the gold and platinum records on the walls. The discs are everywhere, all framed and mounted, sparkling in the light like so many giant jewels. They're in the lobby, in the receptionist's area, in the lounge, in offices, in tech rooms, and they all say roughly the same thing — "presented to Bob Ludwig for his efforts on [insert major record] which has amassed [mucho] million in sales." This Bob Ludwig has a lot of bling.So much so that strolling into Gateway feels like you've momentarily left Maine and landed in New York or Los Angeles. You have to remind yourself that you just stepped off Cumberland Avenue in Portland.

But then something else strikes you. Hanging alongside these huge-selling platters are paintings, maps, photographs, and artwork of the type more typically found in a Forest City place of business — images of Maine. Across from massive-selling records by Rage Against the Machine and Pearl Jam is a six-foot wall map of the Pine Tree State. In one studio are photos of Stonington Harbor, in another are pictures of Portland Headlight. In the men's bathroom is a snowscape of Hodgdon Island in Boothbay Harbor, and occupying one gigantic wall in the lobby is an Eric Hopkins 8 x 10 — that's eight feet by ten feet. An arresting blue-and-green birds-eye of Penobscot Bay islands, it commands attention from anyone passing by.

"Of all the gear we have here, all the gold records, that painting gets the most appreciation," says Ludwig, a gregarious, curly haired, New York native. Ludwig certainly has impressive equipment, befitting his status as arguably the finest mastering engineer in the country, if not the world. His Portland facility has few peers in the recording industry, winning award after award in high-tech audio production, and Ludwig has put the finishing touch on literally hundreds of gold (those that sold more than 500,000 copies) and platinum (million-selling) records. He's done the entire Springsteen catalog. Every recording by the Police and Nirvana. He's mastered almost the entire catalog of works by such artists as Lou Reed, ZZ Top, Dire Straits, Steely Dan, Tori Amos, Hall and Oates, and on and on. If you own any CDs at all, chances are you have several mastered by this sixty-year-old genius. He probably ought to be in New York or L.A. — but he wants to be in Maine.

And at a time when recording studios are selling or going under all across the land, done in by the increasing affordability of home recording setups, Ludwig's having a good year. The major record labels are repackaging and remastering recordings from their back catalogs of all the greats in an attempt to beef up lagging CD sales. They're doing double discs and surround-sound discs and add-on DVDs, and all of that is good news for guys like Bob Ludwig. The calendar at Gateway, a dry-erase board in a room near the reception area, is full, brimming over with a musical Who's Who. In one week alone Ludwig is working on albums by Sheryl Crow, Bruce Springsteen, Staind, Ray Davies, and Rob Thomas. Then Paul Simon calls, and he's added to the list. "Up here in little old Portland, Maine," chuckles Bob.

This sort of schedule isn't exactly what Ludwig wanted when he moved to Maine to open Gateway in 1993 after almost thirty years as a house engineer at some of the top studios in New York. "When we first moved up here thirteen years ago, I did it with the hopes of being less busy than I was in New York," he says with a laugh. "That was a disastrous failure. For the first seven years, I think I worked every weekend."

Being so far from the major music centers — New York and L.A. — was a calculated gamble. But Ludwig found an unexpected thing happened when he set up shop on the coast of Maine. "Much to our surprise," he says, "we had more people attend sessions here than we ever did in New York." The stars, it seemed, would follow Ludwig wherever he went. Where Bob goes Bob's ears go, and those ears alone can be the difference between a lackluster pop song and an international smash. Mastering is the final stage of the recording process, the last creative step before albums are sent to the manufacturing plant. Ludwig adjusts the volume of tracks, equalizes them for optimal listening, compresses them for impact on the radio, adds or subtracts ambience, and just generally improves on the mixes that are sent to him.

The advent of home recording software — and microphones, mixers, and other equipment that are relatively affordable and close to pro quality — has changed everything about the recording business, and it's had its impact on mastering, too. "Now that recording is largely done digitally, everybody with a PC can do it at a pretty high level," says Michael Aharon, a record producer and studio owner based in Philadelphia. "But without a couple of things you're pretty much adrift in a sea of variables." The first, says Aharon, is "having the experience and ability to discern subtle dynamic issues and to understand how that translates to the radio or to different sets of speakers." Basically, you need a highly trained ear. Second, you need a room that will accurately represent the sounds coming out of your computer. "In order to make good decisions, you need to listen in an environment that won't color the sound you're hearing. Obviously, most people don't have that at home."

If you don't understand all that, no worries — most musicians don't understand what mastering is either. It's an art, a subjective process, and one that's hard to define. It's even harder to do well. And few people can do it as well as Bob Ludwig. Bruce Springsteen's co-producer and manager Jon Landau told the Boston Globe: "[Bob] comes up with these little increments of sound adjustment that just open up the music in the most amazing ways."

Ludwig's amazing ways have won him the TEC Award for "Outstanding Creative Achievement, Mastering Engineer" an unprecedented twelve times. The award is offered by the Mix Foundation, an offshoot of Mix magazine, the bible of the recording industry. He's taken home untold Grammies (ten of his records won Grammy Awards last year alone), and he's up for more this month. Ludwig was the first recipient of the Les Paul Award, offered jointly by Mix and Gibson Guitars for "individuals who have set the highest standards of excellence in recording and sound production over a period of many years." Gateway Mastering has won the TEC Award for mastering studios eight times, going up against facilities all across the world. All from little old Portland, Maine.

And so with hopes of creating a gold record like those that adorn the walls at Gateway, the stars come north to see Bob. Since he opened Gateway Mastering, the golden-eared Scarborough resident has become a de facto ambassador of Maine to rock royalty. Besides all the imagery on the walls, he has handout maps in his lounge and a mini chamber of commerce on his Web site listing restaurants and accommodations. "Bob has exposed a lot of people to Maine that never would have come here," says Rachel Higgins, who handles scheduling at Gateway and arranges reservations for rock nabobs at places like the Portland Harbor Hotel, the Portland Regency Hotel, or the Black Point Inn.

Those are people like "Bruce" — that would be Springsteen — who Ludwig has taken to Fore Street. (The Boss, who's dined at the finest restaurants, has told Ludwig that the pulled pork at Sam Hayward's ever-popular eatery is the best he's ever had.) At Gateway, Bob has hosted Gwen Stefani, Dave Grohl of Foo Fighters, Bryan Ferry, Boz Scaggs, Chris and Tina Weymouth of Talking Heads, members of Radiohead, Peter Wolf, and countless others. His guestbook is astonishing. ("The only people I got nervous around were George Harrison and John Lennon," notes the Beatles fan.)

"Everyone seems to like coming up here," Ludwig says. "They treat it like a vacation." One particular star sticks out in his mind. The lead singer of the massive 1980s band Journey. "When Steve Perry was up here for the first time," Ludwig says, "he actually hired a helicopter to look for property."

This is the same sort of reaction Ludwig himself had when he began visiting his parents at their home in Stockton Springs. "I've been coming up here for thirty-five years and loving it," he says. He enjoys walks on Higgins Beach with his wife, he likes to photograph the Maine landscape, and he appreciates a pace of life that is gentler than it is in New York.

"It's definitely the quality of life here," he says of his reasons for setting up his studio in Portland. "I was just in New York for a meeting of the Audio Engineering Society and, having worked and lived in New York, I know the city very well. But when you're there it's so loud and so fast-paced and you're always looking over your shoulder. If you dropped your wallet here, somebody would chase after you to return it, not stick a knife in your back to get it. After being here there's this relaxation that takes place. I stopped looking over my shoulder."

Ludwig also appreciates the levelheadedness Mainers are famous for. "Talking to the most glamorous of glamorous rock stars could go to your head," he says. "But then you go into a place like Becky's Diner and sit next to some hardworking people, and it puts your life in balance. People with good hardworking work ethics have as much psychologically to offer as flamboyant rock stars."

Ludwig grew up in Westchester County, New York, and he first encountered the glamorous world of rock and roll in the late sixties after graduating from the University of Rochester's Eastman School of Music. He earned a bachelor's degree in music education, a master's in performance (trumpet) and music literature, and he played principal trumpet with the Utica Symphony Orchestra. Classical music, especially contemporary classical music, is his great musical love, but he quickly became involved in the world of rock thanks to the legendary Phil Ramone, producer of Paul McCartney, Paul Simon, Elton John, and many others, who directed Eastman's first recording workshop. It wasn't long before Ludwig went to work for Ramone at A&R Recording in New York. He then moved on to work at two of the city's best-known mastering facilities — Sterling Sound and Masterdisk — before deciding he wanted to own his own facility.

"When I started my own business I took out all these loans," Ludwig says, "I wanted to do it someplace I wanted to be, in case it didn't work out. I haven't had a single regret about settling in Maine."

When Ludwig founded Gateway he had hopes of being able to take time off to enjoy the state that beckoned out his doors. After getting the studio up and running he came up with yet another idea to relieve all the pressure on his time. "Plan B was to get a talented protégé to help me with my schedule," he says with a laugh. "But that was a disastrous failure, too." It wasn't that he couldn't find a young talent. In fact, just the opposite happened. The young man he took under his wing, Adam Ayan, is now in high demand, too, having mastered work by Nirvana, the Rolling Stones, Faith Hill, Nine Inch Nails, Brian Setzer, Counting Crows, and Phish, and bringing in gold and platinum records on his own.

Ludwig has added a whole raft of talented personnel — Gateway now has a staff of eleven, including Bob's wife, Gail, who is the studio manager — and yet Ludwig's schedule remains as packed as ever. He'd like to have more time to devote to recording classical combos like the DaPonte String Quartet, which he's done in the past. He is also involved with PCA Great Performances and other local arts organizations. "I'm still busier than I want to be," he admits. But when it comes down to it, Bob Ludwig's doing what he wants — and more importantly, he's doing it where he wants. "Oh, I suppose some doctors put in a lot of hours," he says. "Other than the hours, it's the best job in the world."

And as for his adopted home state, his opinion is simple. "It would never occur to me to leave."