Drummer / Mixer / Producer

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

A: I'm very honest about what I can do and what I can't in terms of performance. I don't like to edit or put the drums in a grid, I prefer to be 100% true to my personal music philosophy and I try to arrange drum parts looking for effectiveness. Both in drum recording or producing a song, my "promise" is that I will do my best in putting my creativity. Sounds cheesy but it's a simple truth.

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

A: I explain them in a very detailed way what I'm going to do. There are not frequently asked questions.

Q: What questions do you ask prospective clients?

A: I always ask if they want me to arrange drum parts from scratch or if there are already ideas. Then I ask which audio format they prefer to receive from me.

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

A: I always specify that I will not edit drums, cause I don't want a computer plays instead of me. If this thing is not accepted they can ask for another session drummer.

Q: Can you share one music production tip?

A: When recording drums for a song I tend to be very proficient when I have a full arrangement (with vocals) to work on. A drummer can find more solutions and avoid overplaying.

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

A: My work in the project Bologna Violenta (as a drummer and as a mixer/sound engineer) is very rewarding: the music is very challenging (technically speaking) and there's a huge musical research and accuracy in composing and arranging the parts. It's avanguard music and it's the music I always wanted to play and work with.

Q: What are you working on at the moment?

A: I recently worked for one of Enrico Tiberi's latest productions, a modern kind of R&B and Soul music from a guy called Yiran.

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

A: There's a couple of guys here that clients would love to work with. Enrico Tiberi is a producer and a super-skilled musician and singer that's making a lot of remarkable things (including his own musicial projects). Sometimes I help him as a drummer or audio/editor for some of his jobs. Nicola Manzan is a violinist (multi-instrumentalist I must say) with a huge resume that clients would be happy to work with, also for arranging string sections. Hire them.

Q: Analog or digital and why?

A: I work in the digital domain most of the time, apart from some analog outboard gear which undoubtedly helps. I think that the majority of people listen to music through deeply punishing audio formats and this is unavoidable. So there's no particular need today to work with full analog systems except for a little niche of audiophiles. Nevertheless I always try to be very near to that kind of warmth, just because I like that.

Q: What do you like most about your job?

A: Playing drums or working on a musical matter as a technician is what I always wanted to do, since I was a kid. I don't see myself doing anything else.

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

A: Sometimes people think that when recording the simplest drum part, there's no reason to ask much money. The reality is that to be able to record a simple drum part, having a good flow and groove, requires a lot of skill and years of experience. And the result speaks for itself.

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

A: Bass drum, snare drum, hi-hat, bass and a guitar.

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

A: I'm into the music making since i was a kid. I started programming midi drums and arrangements in the late '80s with the glorious ATARI 1040stf and one of the first versions of Cubase ever. In the middle '90s I started playing drums with my first bands and I never stopped. In the past ten years I toured worldwide with different bands and recorded/engineered many albums by various artists (including mine).

Q: How would you describe your style?

A: My drumming DNA is certainly the combination of those drummers doing the music I've been shocked by. Ringo, Billy Cobham, Bonham and Carl Palmer are my roots. Then I discovered Tim Alexander, Gene Hoglan, Tomas Haake, Danny Carey, Billy Martin and so on. These drummers explored new rhythmic territories and guided constantly my playing.

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

A: Someone who experiences music as a form of art and not as an ATM.

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

A: I worked a lot for Heavy Rock, Progressive Rock, Heavy Metal records (as a drummer and as a sound engineer). I'm lately working on Hip-Hop productions and I always played drums for Funk and Soul bands.

Q: What's your strongest skill?

A: To be aware of what is too much.

Q: What do you bring to a song?

A: It depends on the client request and the level of artistic freedom I have while playing and recording. Sometimes I simply record what has been already planned, sometimes I make my own thing: I usually try to focus on the song and not on the rhythmical "tradition" of the "western" music. I like to explore different musical cultures and i love to come up with new and unconventional solutions.

Q: What's your typical work process?

A: If I'm asked to record drums I typically work on a pre-production Cubase template using an electronic drumset triggered by top notch vst softwares. When the pre-production is accepted by the client, I transcribe what i played and recorded (if needed) and I start to mic up and track the drumset. When working on songs to be mixed (recorded by others) I typically ask raw files and I engineer them in Cubase, which I totally love for its quickness and easiness to work with. All files are sent back to the client in the agreed format.

Q: Tell us about your studio setup.

A: I work in my home studio for most of the mixing/editing jobs. In case of recording drumsets or tracking other instruments, I cooperate with a couple of real good facilities in my area with lots of hi-standard mics (Shure, Neumann, Blue, Akg, etc.) and outboard (Focusrite, Lindell, Urei, Empirical Labs, Maselec, Motu, etc.).

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

A: As a drummer or producer/mixer I'm deeply influenced by musicians/artists who don't merely follow stereotypes and clichés. To think musically is the key to step forward and make music that's stimulating and newsworthy. So I am miles away from what the mainstream sound is dictating (in every musical genre).

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

A: The routine may vary in some cases: sometimes I'm asked to simply record drums, sometimes to write drums arrangement too (in this case I record for the client some examples to help him decide what works best). As a sound engineer I typically choose the best recording environment (it could be anywhere) but most of the times clients give me raw files and I just put them in my DAW and start mixing. That's a very simple process.