Rec, Edit, Mix & Mastering

Q: Tell us about a project you worked on you are especially proud of and why. What was your role?

A: Lorenzo Gabanizza's "Demons", whose royalties are been devolved to fight depression among artists

Q: If you were on a desert island and could take just 5 pieces of gear, what would they be?

A: No place for gear on a deserted island, no AC mains to use them. Better to bring a survival kit with many tools, your favourite acoustic musical instrument, maybe a handwheel turntable, and many good records!

Q: What other musicians or music production professionals inspire you?

A: Bruce Sudano as a composer and arranger, Butch Vig and Sylvia as producers, Eddie Kramer, Irko as engineers.

Q: Is there anyone on SoundBetter you know and would recommend to your clients?

A: Many! how to say who?

Q: Tell us about your studio setup.

A: Proper soundproofed and acoustically treated environment is the starting point to obtain good recordings. That's why we spent so much time designing and building our rooms. We record digitally (as almost everyone today) using a Pro Tools HD3 Rig, but we love the old fashioned analog sound. That’s why our studio is full of machines and we’ve got an incredible good sounding Neve Genesys console alongside an SSL summing mixer. We can record 24 inputs at a time, more than enough in our room. Quality analog front end, good mics from the best brands and selected outboard processors are the key to reach the right sound from the start. Editing Is of corse in the box, while mixing and mastering can be performed on the console with outboard gear and also by analog stem.

Q: Analog or digital and why?

A: Analog front end, using selected super high quality gear, to get the right sound. Analogue summing, cause it gives a proper sound to the mix. And mixing on a console with analog processors and outboards has both a different sound, and a different (and better, for us) workflow. But the digital way is practical, and it’s the only way to be flexible enough to jump from a project to another in a few minutes... So we choose to combine digital workflow with analog gear and an automated and “total recall” analog console, to get the best of both worlds on every project.

Q: What's your strongest skill?

A: My strongest skills are having good ears, proper knowledge, and above all being totally dedicated and over perfectionist, on every single project I handle

Q: Describe the most common type of work you do for your clients.

A: Recording, editing and mixing vocals. It may be for a song, or for a video voiceover, or another kind of project, but it's the most common kind of job we do nowadays. Recording acoustic instruments, cause you still need a good studio to do it properly. Many session come from other studios, and then will be sent to even another one. Mixing and mastering, for projects that were recorded in our studio and for sessions that come from abroad.

Q: What type of music do you usually work on?

A: Before opening my studio, I supposed we would do mainly pop and rock. Instead, I've been working on so many genres that I can hardly count, from classical and lirical music, to modern classical, jazz, blues, acoustic, bossa nova, pop, rock, hard rock, metal, R&B and Hip Hop. We also do our part on voiceovers, commercials, audio post production etc.

Q: What was your career path? How long have you been doing this?

A: I started recording on stereo cassettes as a child, and moved up to reel tape, then multitrack and finally digital. For a long time, it has been just a hobby. Then, since it happened to be something that I was good at, people started to ask me if I would work on their projects. Now it’s 10 years from when I started running my own studio. It base been growing year after year, and we keep improving to offer high quality gear and skills to help our clients fulfill their dreams in music production, recording, mixing and mastering.

Q: What advice do you have for a customer looking to hire a provider like you?

A: Don't trust those who say their staff is "high qualified". Don't trust those who will talk bad about somebody else, just to persuade you that they're "bettern then". Don't trust those rooms which have been covered with grey foam everywhere. Talk to the professional you're hiring, listen at the different solutions he/she'll propose you. Look at the gear they use, cause you don't need a million dollar studio to record your disc, but you cant do it properly without starting from a "minimun standard". It's not only about equipment and room acoustics, it's more about knowing how to use those important tools. Look if the solutions they're proposing to you appear good enough to reach your goals. Look at his/her experience, and respect it, cause usually he/she knows what's thalking about. If you're not satisfied, ask for more informations. And if you're still not satisfied, ask for a second opinion.

Q: How would you describe your style?

A: I'm a planner, but I trust my ears better and I tend to follow what they're telling me to do.

Q: What are you working on at the moment?

A: Many different projects, musically and in audio post.

Q: What's your 'promise' to your clients?

A: I will always be 110% focused in getting the best possible result.

Q: What do you like most about your job?

A: I like audio cause it's continuously challenging. You cannot just sit, look at the frame, and correct the image pixel by pixel. You gotta stay focused on what you're doing, by looking at the fine little elements and keeping an eye on the whole picture at the same time.

Q: What questions do customers most commonly ask you? What's your answer?

A: How much time will it take to do this and that? It depends on so many factors, it's hard to tell in advance. How long will it take for a singer to sing the perfect take? Occasionally it maybe the first one, more often you will need to edit dozens of tracks to get to something good. How can you know for shure what's the future?

Q: What's the biggest misconception about what you do?

A: Being an audio engineer in not just knowing how to twist knobs, or having expensive gear that do things better. It is knowing how to deal with sounds , and having knowledge about how to do modify and let it express itself in different ways. There are many wrong moves, but not a single right one. You can follow different routes that lean to different solutions, and those endings maybe equally good.

Q: What questions do you ask prospective clients?

A: Desired sound? Specific goals for the production? Budget? Cause you can reach different results depending on how much time you're gonna invest in your project.

Q: Can you share one music production tip?

A: Let it flow! Music will tell you what's working in a song and what's not, just by listening at it with the proper attitude.

Q: What's your typical work process?

A: Pre project meeting - Pre production recording - Song analysis - Best solution for each project, in one case it will be overdub recordings, in other cases it will be rehearsing altogether etc. There are no written rules, just codified technics to do things in the right way.

Q: Which artist would you like to work with and why?

A: many! cause every time is a new challenge!

Q: What do you bring to a song?

A: My own sight on the music, and a personal interpretation about how it should sound.