Nuno Cruz on SoundBetter

Versatile and technical bass player, mixer and mastering engineer. I'm well versed in extreme metal and electronic music, but I'm ready to handle anything that comes my way!

Hi, I've been playing bass for nearly 12 years and engineering for around 5.
I have finished a bachelors degree in Music Tech at the Politechnic Institute of Lisbon and I've done some freelance work in the past as an audio engineer and session bass player, outside of Soundbetter. These are the musical projects that I'm currently a part of:

- Bass player for Enblood (Technical Death Metal) since 2015.
- Bass player for Annihilation (Death Metal) since 2019.
- Bass player, songwriter, producer and mixing/mastering engineer for Crimson Bridge (Progressive Metal & Melodic Death Metal) since 2016.
- Bass player, producer, songwriter and mixing/mastering engineer for Tokyo Wanderer (Future Funk, House, R&B & Alternative Rock) since 2015.
- Mastering engineer and release coordinator for Nightfall Collective (Future Funk and House) since 2019.

Although I specialize in mixing, mastering and bass playing, I can also fulfill other services like: editing (e.g. quantizing and comping takes) and songwriting (instrumentals).

The genres that I've worked with the most range all the way from progressive metal and death metal to future funk, house and synthpop. Despite that, I'm still looking to further expand my musical repertoire, so don't be afraid to send me tracks from different genres!

I'd love to hear about your project. Click the 'Contact' button above to get in touch.

Credits

4 Reviews

Endorse Nuno Cruz

by Duarte Guelha
I've been working with Nuno for some months now and I have to say he's a great guy.
He keeps pushing my work to another level and I've learned a lot with him!
Without Nuno my songs wouldn't be the same!
by Alexander
Nuno did a wonderfull job on helping out to achieve the final polished sound my album needed with his digital mixing and mastering skills!
by ordepoaaoj
Nuno is fantastic for mixing and mastering purposes, as well as a killer bass player. I sent him a track that I had given up on mixing so he could fix it and he did it perfectly. Recommend him a lot!
by João Miguel
Whenever I need a song mixed or mastered I always go to Nuno! He's a seasoned professional and will definitely bring your track to the next level! Besides his amazing skills as a Mixing/Mastering Engineer, he's a phenomenal bass player! He can handle every musical genre and his unique approach will make your track sound unique and stand out! I can't recommend Nuno highly enough!

Interview with Nuno Cruz

Q: How would you describe your style?
A: As far as bass playing goes: technical, agressive, fast and melodic. In terms of production: spacious, experimental and crystal clear.
Q: Which artist would you like to work with and why?
A: I wish I could collab with Tyler The Creator or Trent Reznor one day. They are both some of my biggest inspirations when it comes to how I approach music production in general.
Q: Can you share one music production tip?
A: Try not too lowpass your bass guitar too much. In metal and rock, a lot of bass players need that crunch and grinding sound that comes from the pick/fingers' attack. If you cut that off completely, the bass won't be heard and it will lack edge. In other genres you can get away with cutting out more high end, but rolling off the tone pot should already be enough to not require a lowpass below 6k Hz.
Q: What type of music do you usually work on?
A: I mostly work with Progressive Metal, Melodic Death Metal and Technical Death Metal whenever I'm working with my bands. Most of the times, whenever I'm doing work as Tokyo Wanderer or mixes/masters for clients, it's future funk, nu disco, french house and some other EDM niche genres.
Q: What's your strongest skill?
A: I think I've got two skills fighting for the number 1 spot haha... Both versatility and resillience.
Q: What do you bring to a song?
A: I always make sure I got the most well suited references I can think off or that the client has provided. Inspiration is the key to pull a song out of the gutter and make it shine. Not only that, but it also makes it easier for me to know what the client actually wants.
Q: What's your typical work process?
A: Like everyone else, I'll listen to the song a few times before getting my hands dirty and then I make a proper plan of what to do. When it comes to mixing and mastering, I'm always extra careful to make sure everything comes in the right bitrate, sample rate and that the source doesn't have any other sort of exceedingly bad problems. If everything is alright, then I'll start whatever I'm gonna do. For mixing and mastering, I always try to keep it simple and logical so I don't end up creating a snowball of problems that will slow down my work.
Q: Tell us about your studio setup.
A: It's nothing too fancy, but it gets the job done. Whenever I record my bass, I always run the dry signal going into the interface in parallel with a Boss BC-1X and a Sansamp Bass Driver V2 to get a wider tonal pallet during the mixing stage. Other than that, I use a Presonus Studio 6|8 interface, a pair of Alesis Elevate 5 MKII monitors and the AKG240 Studio headphones.
Q: What other musicians or music production professionals inspire you?
A: I have a lot of inspirations, but if I have to name a few I'll have to go with the following bass players: Thundercat, Flea, Bootsy Collins, Dominic "Forest" Lapointe, Les Claypool, Alex Webster, Ryan Martinie, Cliff Burton, Steve Harris, John Myung, Geddy Lee and Frank Bello. As far as producers go, I'll defenatly have to pick Kurt Ballou, Ross Robinson, Trent Reznor, Connor Sweeney, Prince, Flying Lotus, Pharrell Williams and Tyler The Creator.
Q: Describe the most common type of work you do for your clients.
A: The most common work I've done for my clients has been mastering and recording/writing as a session bass player.