| joeaudio wrote on Wed, 02 December 2009 09:47 |
Does Bob Ludwig know that someone spent more on their monitors
than he did?
|
Back in 1993 when Bob L. took a big risk and opened a no expense spared facility in a town that was not one of the three USA music industry centers, things were certainly different than now -
* the amount of dedicated mastering studios was far less saturated
* options to "diy" a master were essentially non-existent - as PCM1630's, the initial PMCD burners and lathes were outside the budgets of the vast majority of music production facilities
* the major labels were showing marked sales and profit growth, and budgets for mastering were at a healthy level vs. now when just the opposite is happening
I think things worked out fantastically for Bob L. with Gateway because of excellent timing with the opening happening during 6 years of serious growth for the music industry, the fact that he had already established a reputation as one of the top 5 mastering engineers in the country - along with a very large client base, and that Portland allowed him to afford property and have less overhead after initial build out expenses in a way that NYC never would of.
But a place attempting to do similar things now appealing to a high end market has to contend against already well established places such as Sterling, Masterdisk, etc. etc. - while also contending with shrinking budgets.
So again - while I admire the dedication to finding some kind of "holy grail" of monitoring - as a business decision these days $180k for monitors is seriously out to lunch.
Best regards,
Steve Berson
