SOLID ANALOG MASTERING

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

A: I learned Piano and Drums when I was a kid, I started as a beat maker at 20s and soon became a producer. I learned how to mix and slowly I made my way into the Mastering art looking in particular at how my songs were mastered by professionals. After studying hundreds of masters I slowly started building my own mastering space and in 2015 I opened my official Solid Mastering facility.

Q: Analog or digital and why?

A: You don't judge a dish by the ingredients but by the way it looks and tastes. If it's good it's good. But the Fairchild..........is obviously veeery tasty:))

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

A: I'll make your day when you'll listen to your mastered songs.

Q: What do you like most about your job?

A: Job? which job? I just love listening to music!!! I love even more turning something good into great. it's great to see people satisfied about my work.

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

A: The most common : Please can you make this real loud ? after I do my work the common comment is: How did you achieve that........my answer: I could tell you, but then I would have to kill you!!!! I'll never say that a loud master is bad or good by definition...everything depends on taste, genre and the market.

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

A: Sometimes people (in particular when inexperienced) mix up mastering with a magic fix for a bad production, mix, editing, songwriting etc....... Mastering will take a song to the next level but it always depends where we start from.

Q: What questions do you ask prospective clients?

A: I always try to understand my clients expectations. Connecting to the client's vision is key.

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

A: Make sure to provide the engineer with all the input you can about your project and expectations. Sailing towards the same direction is just easier.

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

A: My wife, my baby, my kindle, a bottle of wine and ......my Pom Fairchild.

Q: How would you describe your style?

A: first of all, good communication and relationship ...secondly thick, full, powerful and big sound.

Q: Can you share one music production tip?

A: Focus on quick and right decisions. Follow your instinct and KEEP IT SIMPLE.

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

A: Mastering is a 360° job...I have lot of experience with house, edm (included all derivations), hip-hop, pop, latin pop, rock, heavy metal...but I have worked on jazz, classic music, soul...

Q: What's your strongest skill?

A: Experienced ears. The ability to look into a song and understand what's needed is key.

Q: What do you bring to a song?

A: Vision, objectivity and a totally fresh set of skilled and experienced ears. I've been producer and mixing engineer and have done the whole ear-training process before becoming a mastering guy. A mixing engineer who also offers mastering can get good results, but the stunning results that a true mastering engineer can achieve are invaluable. You pay for our experience, objectivity, technique and dedicated fine-tuned environment.

Q: What's your typical work process?

A: I listen to the material first. If asked, i'll offers suggestions according to what i hear. Then i'll proceed and send an MP3 preview at 320KBPS for approval (or revisions). After approval and payment, I'll provide the full package. I can also provide HQ (96Khz,24bit) wav files.

Q: Tell us about your studio setup.

A: Our mastering room was built from ground up to serve as a mastering studio. It’s fully treated and decoupled – built in a room within a room type of configuration – all to ensure a quiet and ultra accurate monitoring environment. Along with a reference monitoring system by PMC and acoustically neutral furniture by Sterling Modular, our room provides a revealing listening experience, key to what a mastering studio should all be about. Regarding our tools, Solid Mastering is outfitted with the best world class analogue gear from brands such as Prism Sound, Fairchild P.o.m., Maselec, Rupert Neve Designs, Sontec, Dangerous Music and many more.

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

A: Mastering and just mastering, all day everyday. Mastering can be such a crafty art. Stepping into the very last phase of the music production carries a mix of pressure, responsibility and honor to us. And we do not take it lightly. Your music is now only one step away from being released to the world! The way we see our role is to become the best team player as we can be. Having great gear is just part of the equation. The most valuable tools will always be your heart and ears. Finding the balance between all the elements is a reward of its own. Much love and respect to all of you creative souls!