Mastering on-line and attended

Q: Analog or digital and why?

A: Who cares of which tomato or mozzarella is used to make the best pizza??? The only important thing is that it tastes the best :)

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

A: They'll be followed by me from start to end, will get a personal attention regardless of how much they are (...already...) famous... "Not everyone can become a great artist; but a great artist *can* come from *anywhere*" (cit. Ratatouille - Disney 2007)

Q: What do you like most about your job?

A: The look of people after listening to theirs job mastered...a mix of happiness and wonder...

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

A: "What's your thought about loudness?" "It's just a feature if the mastering process, I'll never say that a loud master is bad by definition or good for the same reason...everything depends on your taste, your music genre and the market you're referring"

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

A: Many people (mostly artists with less experience in music production) think that mastering will give "the sound": that's not true, "the sound" is the result of the whole process from songs, performance, tracking, mixing and finally mastering. That's why sometimes it's better to fix in the mix what's wrong instead of trying to do in mastering: if a mix is good, after mastering it will be WOW..if a mix is bad, after mastering will just be "listenable"...

Q: What questions do you ask prospective clients?

A: Are you happy of the mix?

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

A: Don't be scared to talk with the professionals (especially if you're working unattended), tell what are your expectations and ask for revisions until you get exactly what you want! About this before hiring ask always the revision policy of the professional, to be sure that you'll be able to ask that without an extra cost.

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

A: My wife, my 2 babies (...and 3 from january...:)) and my animals... ...then in some way I can learn how to make beer there... :)

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

A: I work on every music, mastering is a 360° job...I have lot of experience on rock, heavy metal (included all derivations), hip-hop, pop, latin pop...but also I have done lot of jazz, classic music, soul...

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

A: I've started 15 years ago as recording and mixing engineer, working with great producers mainly on Italian and Latin productions, but was always fascinated by mastering stage. In 2012 I've decided to move 100% to this job, and built my new room completely dedicated to mastering. In 2013 I went to NY to learn the tricks from top class Mastering Engineer Vlado Meller, and I was lucky to have been made aware of the secrets of mastering of productions like RHCP, Slipknot, Kanye West, Andrea Bocelli, System Of A Down, Shakira etc... In 2014 my business started to grow more and more, and actually I work for productions from Italy, US, Canada, Greece, Russia, Norway etc...

Q: How would you describe your style?

A: Good communication and relationship at first step...and about the sound...well...clean, well outlined and very powerful!

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

A: You :)

Q: Can you share one music production tip?

A: I pretty much never use compressors....but can anyway achieve extra-loud masters if required :) I feel it maintain more the mix character.

Q: What's your strongest skill?

A: I'm very respectful of the mixing job. I think mastering stage has to give the final touch, but not completely upset the job done. I'm not scared of giving loudness or more dynamics if it's what producer is asking to have...my vision about mastering is that is done to serve the music!

Q: What do you bring to a song?

A: I'm focused on giving a good translation on all listening systems, and to enhance the mixing and production direction, always taking into account the sound/loudness requirements that each style (and destination) has.

Q: What's your typical work process?

A: Well...I'm used to think on the music first: I listen carefully to the mix and get in tough with the mixing engineer and the producer, in order to perfectly understand where the production has to go; if I find something that I feel weird I just tell them, sometimes is wanted, some others not...and in case of mix revisions needed I wait for the final version. Then I give my EQ and dynamic touch in order to enhance the music, if it's a single I'll think of the only song...if it's an album or an EP I'll proceed in the same album order and will give to the songs what they need to fit the production expectations and guarantee a nice flow. There's no standard way here, there are mixes that needs a strong intervention, others that have to be pretty untouched...

Q: Tell us about your studio setup.

A: My actual setup include a mastering transfer console Maselec MTC-1,Weiss EQ1-MK2 and DS1-MK3, a rare dynamic EQ Junger Audio E07, Mytek converters and our big custom VU meter rack... But the most important piece is the monitoring environment: our PSI Audio mastering system 25-225 in a perfectly controlled room; they give us the complete control of what we do!

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

A: I'm 100% involved in mastering music, I master singles, full albums, EPs etc... I give the last touch before distribution, so it's very important to check everything: the sound balance, a nice flow between songs, a right level according to music style and distribution channel etc...