Mixing & Recording Engineer

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

A: Francesco Incandela - Flow vol.1

Q: What are you working on at the moment?

A: Mixing

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

A: Sabino Cannone

Q: Analog or digital and why?

A: Both obviously. But I want an analog desk

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

A: Not promises but facts.

Q: What do you like most about your job?

A: Every song I mix it's like a baby for me. I'm feeling part of the creation process. I love to listen the songs after years and rethinking about that moments

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

A: "This drums track sounds very bad... could you make it sound like bonzo's drums ?" mmm... no, I'm not a wizard

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

A: I don't know I can answer to this. sorry

Q: What questions do you ask prospective clients?

A: What is your prospective? What are the references for the final work? What is the dead line? What are the singles? How many tracks do you have? If you have any particular efx tracks plese buonce it and sent it tom as a stem track.

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

A: Be clear from the start and enjoy

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

A: A guitar and a gin tonic.

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

A: 10 years as sound engineer I'm a musician since I was 10.

Q: How would you describe your style?

A: ..

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

A: ..

Q: Can you share one music production tip?

A: My goal is to bring the artist beyond its possibilities and let explore the song from a different point of view. Generally every artist who need a production, comes into the studio with an idea of finished song but maybe is not too proud of the results. My work is to wash out the exceding grease and to reconstitute an existing equilibrium inside the song.

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

A: I work on everything I can. I love music, not genres.

Q: What's your strongest skill?

A: patience

Q: What do you bring to a song?

A: I try to put in evidence all the good stuff inside: emotions, expression, communications, dynamics, colour

Q: What's your typical work process?

A: I load all the tracks on my Daw and I start listening to the rough mix to get into the mood of the song. Then I do a global check to fix any eventual phase issue or anything else. Now it's time for mixing! My work flow is simple but at the same time very distinctive. I don't really much love "beat detectiveing" any transient on drums or doing too much nerd stuff in the session (except for automations) because I love naturalness and spontaneity. Same for vocals tunings etc, but obviously all depends on the genre. Nothing is better then a good arrangement and a bloody performance!

Q: Tell us about your studio setup.

A: Actually, Mine is a hybrid setup like the ones of most engineers in the world. I love analog desks because each one has a peculiar sound. I love the feeling of the music, the electricity, flowing under my hands. It overwelming me. I turn my tracks using lots of vintage outboards in the studio but I also use plugins and ITB routing to get the sound I want. For example I love Uad suite of course. I don't always do things the same way so I will never start a mix from the same starting point. Sometimes I start from drums, sometimes from vocals and another instrument, sometimes from strings section ... I love mixing strings sections! I don't put a compressor or eq because someone has says that. Every single step on my mixes happens for a specific purpose. After all this amount of things I go to print my LR and a bunch of stems to make sure of the sound I had at the moment and doing any correction after.

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

A: It's very hard to answer this question because each artist has its hard bone. I listening to the music every day, a bunch of music everyday. When I listen to something special I turn up my mind and ask to me how did they get that sound and I try to figure out how can I get that sound with my irons. I love old jazz recordings or big bands, but I also love electronic music or pop. I have no prejudice

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

A: I mostly do mixes but I also love recording! Sometimes I do assistance for other engineers. It's always a pleasure to work with other professionals.