Raw feed might sound as smooth as a slide along a steel guitar, but to a classically trained ear behind a thick glass slab it's lacking harmony and a second guitar on chorus. And when those ears are technically proficient, a once-rough cut soon becomes a record.

That's production ­ or a day in the life of Jonathan Wyman.

Take those three weeks of condensed feed to an even keener set of ears, turn decibel deficiencies and static into sonic quality, and you could have a Grammy-winning album.

That's mastering ­ or a day in the life of Adam Ayan.

Together, the "youngest guys in the room, at any given point," as Ayan puts it, become a brand of sweet sound that lends itself to the music.

The 31-year-olds, who have already been in the recording business for a decade, call themselves accidental partners. Not skipping a beat since college graduation, they've grown into the music business together.

Rewind about a decade to when cassettes were sold, not just talked about, and the friends and collaborators were strangers to each other and the business; at the mercy of the industry's static feedback.

"It's about shots and it's about hits. If you get more hits, you get more shots," one producer had told Wyman.

They each heard (at least a few hundred times) that timing is everything in this business.

Back then, making a record was a one-step hit or miss. Ayan was a musician and student at the University of Massachusetts, Lowell wondered what it would be like to play the dials instead of the guitar. So the bold 22-year-old called Bob Ludwig, music mogul and president of Portland's Gateway Mastering & DVD, to ask for advice.

"I'd remembered seeing his name on the back of all my albums when I was 12 years old," said Ayan. "He's mastered four of every five albums out there, and he graciously agreed to come speak at the school."

The call transitioned into Ayan's first job at Gateway, a few years later. By 24, Ludwig had trained him to master ­ the final creative step in the record-making process, where all sound judgments are made. By 2000 he was surrounded by green and red buttons of varying sizes ­ too many to count ­ in the studio Ludwig had built for him. He worked with names like The Rolling Stones, Faith Hill, Nirvana and Phish. Ayan had become Ludwig's protege.

Ludwig not only stayed on the forefront of young talent, but also the time's exploding technology. Ayan's skills thrived alongside the digital age.

"Right away it was clear to people in the music industry he was a force to be reckoned with," said Wyman, who didn't have a half-bad time of it himself when he graduated from Bates College, the same year Ayan graduated UMass-Lowell, in 1997.

"Artists weren't putting the time and effort into (recording) music they do now," said Wyman. "It was shoestring, tiny little budgets for local bands."

Independent Portland artists rarely stepped foot into the studio, so Wyman found work in New York City and the chance at a hit: He began working with Tony Visconti, one of the more versatile producers known for his work with artists such as David Bowie. Then he got a shot at working for David Katz, who wrote music for Mandy Moore.

"One day I was working in the studio and Omar Hakim, the (world-renowned sessional) drummer from Sting, popped his head in and said, 'Man those drums sound good,' " recalled Wyman. "This is someone who is six feet tall with braids who I'd seen growing up in Sting videos."

Networking helped him generate more shots, then produce hits. He was asked to work with another musician he'd been a teenage fan of, the hip-hop artist Speech from Arrested Development.

By 2001, Portland's local music scene was on the rise in the wake of successful bands like Rustic Overtones, and Wyman moved back to Maine to ride that wave. It landed Wyman his current gig as a producer/engineer at Halo Studios in Westbrook.

Wyman learned the ins and outs of producing and engineering ­ recording in the studio and doing first-round engineering.

While many of their former college friends were just launching their careers, Ayan and Wyman began receiving double-takes of the "how old are you?" variety. It was about six years ago that they realized they weren't alone in mastering the art of projecting confidence in the studio, to avoid that uncomfortable skepticism.

And it was then that Ayan finally heard Wyman's work.

"I said who is this guy? I have to meet him," Ayan recalled.

A few days later, he walked into Wyman's studio, and was no longer the youngest guy in the room.

Together, they grew their careers, helping each other to receive the recognition they strived for. "It's amazing to have someone young like you in the business who you don't compete with," said Ayan.

Wyman produced albums and often sent his clients to Gateway. And Ayan would refer them to Wyman for production. They worked as closely as two in separate companies could ­ on and off the job.

"Adam's been my shrink. He's there to give an unbiased opinion about everything work and personal," said Wyman. "Now Adam's the only guy I trust my work with."

Fast-forward to today, a time of digital music, iTunes and Myspace independent label promos: Mastering has become an important final step in music recording, independent artists in Portland are landing in the recording studio.

Just last Monday, Ayan learned he'd received three 2007 Grammy Awards, to place beside his 2006 Grammy, for his mastering work. They included one for Best New Artist Carrie Underwood. Wyman has helped discover emerging artists including As Fast As, Jeremiah Freed, Pete Kilpatrick and Ray Lamontagne.

And the master and producer have become each other's prerequisite for success.