TRUTONE MASTERING LABS LOOK TO LAVRYBLUE CONVERTERS
TO TAKE ON CLASSIC ALBUMS, LATEST RELEASES

ORANGEBURG, NY: The beautiful hills of Orangeburg, NY host deeper woods than you’ll ever find in nearby New York City, making it the perfect setting for the deep mastering experience of Carl Rowatti.

As the chief mastering engineer for Trutone Mastering Labs, which relocated in 2008 from a Manhattan penthouse to today’s bucolic country-tinged location, Rowatti now has the ideal environment for mastering records. His 1,500 sq. ft. world-class analog/digital suite resides within his countryside home, outfitted with the likes of a Neumann VMS-70 lathe for cutting vinyl, a brass-face Fairchild 670, and the extremely transparent performance of the LavryBlue LE 4496 modular conversion system.

A man who’s mastered everyone from Bruce Springsteen and Bob Dylan to Pavarotti, the Killers, Whitney Houston, and the recent Rolling Stones vinyl reissue of Get Yer Ya-Ya’s Out, Rowatti’s ears and gear constantly get called on for high-priority releases. “The criteria for any gear to remain in this studio are, it has to sound extremely good, be very reliable and stable,” he says. “If it doesn’t hit those marks: Goodbye! I don’t need anything here that’s not up to the task. It’s that simple.”  

Rowatti’s expertise and high standards led him to the LavryBlue from Lavry Engineering, which fulfill all his daily D/A needs. Leading from his Sonic Solutions workstation into his top-tier analog gear, and again into his KEF Reference 4 monitors, the full-frequency response and extreme accuracy of his LavryBlues give him a crystal clear sonic picture.

“When I select converters or any other equipment, I bring competitive gear in and have a shootout,” Rowatti explains. “I chose the Lavry for my D/A, because I needed converters that are very accurate and totally neutral. I don’t want my converters to be equalizers – I’ll do the EQ work!”  

“The LavryBlues provide really good definition, throughout the frequency spectrum. Listening with them, I can pick out little details in the mixes that I may have missed otherwise. Whatever I’m processing through a converter is what I’m going to hear, so the D/A’s have got to be right – I feel really comfortable in relying on the LavryBlue converters as the standard for my studio.”

Beyond the sonic performance, Rowatti also appreciates functional aspects of the LavryBlue that make it stand out from other converters. The expandable design, which provides room for up to four single-width A/D or D/A modules, makes it an exceptionally flexible addition to Rowatti’s suite.

“I really appreciate that the LavryBlue frame allows me to add extra modules to it,” he notes. “Rack space is at a premium here. In this format, I was able to add an additional D/A without taking up an iota of extra rack space. And if I want to expand it again, there’s room for two more.”   

Another small, but important – touch for Trutone is the 20-turn input level pots, which require a small screwdriver to be adjusted.  “I must have repeatability here, for mastering CDs and especially for the vinyl records,” explains Rowatti. “Some other converters I checked out had front-panel knobs to adjust the levels, but if someone accidentally knocks into the knob you could be off 2 dB. With the LavryBlue’s screwdriver adjustment, those accidents are never going to happen – I can be confident that ‘+4’ is +4 every time.”   

Armed with two of the most experienced ears in the business, Carl Rowatti is glad to be reinforced with the extreme accuracy yielded by his converters. “With the LavryBlue I can focus on my real job,” he says simply, “which is making music sound as good as possible.”