Studio Monitor: Musical Chairs Continue As Scott Hull Leaves Masterdisk

The game of musical chairs continues in the mastering business. No sooner had word spread of Stephen Marcussen's sudden departure from Los Angeles powerhouse Precision Mastering than a similar scenario unfolded in New York as Scott Hull, a 16-year veteran of Masterdisk, was fired from the facility.
Masterdisk owner Doug Levine declines to comment on the specific reasons for Hull's dismissal. He says, "Masterdisk has and always will be synonymous with world-class audio mastering. We're proud of the stability of the entire staff, particularly the leading engineers who have been with us for over 20 years. The decision to part ways with Scott was not an easy one. At this point, Masterdisk is committed to fortifying our leading position in mastering, as well as solidifying our place in the DVD arena."
Levine adds, "I'm taking the company in a new direction, and, due to that, I really need to attract a new and different type of talent."
Hull says he is uncertain why he was let go. Recounting his last conversation with Levine, Hull says, "There was some talk of lean times and a vague dissatisfaction with decisions that he authorized that I made, but I left very confused. Obviously, after working really hard and, to some extent, not being appreciated, it didn't matter what the reason was."
Hull's firing is the latest in a series of changes at Masterdisk. Last fall, star engineer Greg Calbi left the studio to rejoin Sterling Sound‹where he had worked for years prior to joining Masterdisk‹in a management buyout. Following Calbi's departure, Masterdisk entered into a strategic alliance with L.A.-based DVD developer AIX (Billboard, Nov. 7, 1998).
The AIX deal, which propelled Masterdisk into the DVD authoring business, is a particularly sore point for Hull in light of his latest career turn.
"The biggest kick in the head is that I was personally responsible for getting AIX to come to New York and work at Masterdisk," says Hull. "That was solitarily my doing."
Hull trained under mastering luminary Bob Ludwig, who helped Masterdisk attain a reputation as one of the leading studios in the business. When Ludwig left in 1993 to open his Gateway Mastering facility in Portland, Maine, Hull was promoted to chief engineer at Masterdisk, serving a dual role as mastering engineer and technical facilitator for the rest of the staff‹which currently consists of 22-year veteran Howie Weinberg, Tony Dawsey, Andy Van Dette, and Roger Lian.
Hull says his dual capacity prevented him from reaching his full potential as an engineer. "I was giving up my own career for the sake of Masterdisk," he says. "I was the only engineer not being paid on commission. I did that at Masterdisk's request. The rub came when I decided it was not in my best interest. I believe that if I could have concentrated on promoting my career instead of the careers of five other engineers, I'd be in a different place."
Whatever reasons lie behind the public statements, the conflict at Masterdisk underscores the inherent problems in the relationships between studio owners and their engineers.
By its nature, mastering is a subtle art that depends on the alchemy among an engineer, a set of equipment, and a room. While all three of those factors contribute to the sound of a finished record, it is the engineer's touch that keeps clients coming back.
Unlike producers, recordists, mixers, A&R people, label executives, and other industry professionals whose careers can rise and fall on a single hit, mastering engineers must toil for years before making an impression on the business. And because so much of their skill depends on knowing their acoustical and technical environment, the career-building process must, by necessity, take place in a well-built, well-equipped room‹more often than not, an established studio with deep funding.
The trouble arises when the engineer feels that he or she (the overwhelming majority of mastering engineers are men) has outgrown the studio. It happened to Bernie Grundman, Doug Sax, Ludwig, Herb Powers, Eddie Schreyer, Calbi, and Marcussen‹all of whom left established facilities to open their own shops (see story, page 62).
Although Hull has given no indication that he plans to launch his own business, his predicament is similar to that of the above engineers. At odds with their employers, they all left or were forced out of the studios in which they built their careers. In most cases, both the departing engineer and the original studio have continued to thrive in the wake of the conflicts that drove them apart.
As he moves into the next phase in his career, Hull says he is "scrambling to get clients' work done in studio X or Y, calling in favors." At the same time, Levine says he is close to hiring an established engineer to fill the void left by Hull.
Although the L.A. and New York mastering economies usually have little impact on each other, the Precision and Masterdisk scenarios are likely to have repercussions beyond their regions. Precision owner Larry Emerine recently hired Frankford-Wayne engineer Rick Essig, and Sterling booking manager Scott Jones and is said to be on the verge of taking on a third staffer from New York (Billboard, March 20). Meanwhile, Hull says he would prefer to stay in New York but is not ruling out a move to L.A.
Please stay tuned to Studio Monitor for more news on these developing stories.