Mixing & Mastering

Q: Analog or digital and why?

A: Both of them. Analog because is warm and "musical". Digital because his infinite potential

Q: What do you like most about your job?

A: The many ways you have to reach the same target

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

A: Sometime potential clients think that I'm doing this only for joke. They don't understand that this is a real and expensive job. But the think that makes me really angry is when they think that there's no difference between Garageband and a SSL console...

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

A: Just an acoustic guitar.... I'm alone, so I don't need anything else....

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

A: I started in 2009 after the degree in Music Technology at Saint Louis College Of Music in Rome. My first job was at Groove Studio in Terni where I still collaborate and where I moved all of my gears. In 2013 I reached the 101 and 110 Avid Pro Tools certification and I started to collaborate as Pro Tools operator and audio engineer at the Mulino Recording at Acquapendente

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

A: Die Abete - Tutto O Niente. We tracked and mixed a 8 tracks album in less then 10 days. At the beginning they hired me only for recording and mixing a demo with no expectation, but after listening their music I started to collaborate also on the production and, at the end, on mastering. The album made a great success in the italian alternative panorama, and had many greats reviews

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

A: At the moment my favorite artist/producer is Trent Reznor. I love his music from Nine Inch Nails to the recent soundtracks productions. But there are many other....

Q: Can you share one music production tip?

A: Many parallel compressions

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

A: I'm not focused in a particular style. For me, this is the best aspect of my job

Q: What's your typical work process?

A: This is a one million dollars question..... Probably there's not a typical work process. You have to adapt your behavior depending the client you work with. In my opinion the are a few of rules to respect: 1) the client must be happy because he's paying you 2) you must be professional and fastest as possible in your job (because client is paying) 3) open your mind to new borders. There are multiple ways for reaching the same target In particular, when mixing, first of all, I usually listen the song a couple of times, trying to understand the mood.

Q: Tell us about your studio setup.

A: I usually work at Groove Studio (Terni - Italy), in a 50 mq control room projected by Chris Clifford. There I own a Pro Tools HDX system with 192 Digidesign converters. Mixes are usually mades ITB passing through a Thermionic Culture Fat Bustard, a fantastic valve summing mixer. For monitoring I have three choices (Adam A7X, Genelec 1037c and Yamaha HS80), cabled to a Crane Song Avocet. For high-budget jobs I have the possibility to work at Mulino Recording (Acquapendente - Italy), a fantastic recoding studio with premium vintage equipment and a SSL E4056 G computer mixer

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

A: I grew up with grunge music, in particular Nirvana. Later, Nine Inch Nails opened electronics, metal and pop doors for me. In the last years I've been impressed by many other bands and artists such as Sufjan Stevens, Coldplay, Foo Fighters, Queens Of The Stone Age, PJ Harvey, Jon Hopkins and many more. My favorite producers/audio engineers are Steve Albini, Flood (Mark Ellis), Andy Wallace and Butch Vig.

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

A: I usually work as mixing, mastering, tracking engineer or Pro Tools operator. I also like the production aspect of the making of a song or album. In fact, in the last year, I had the opportunity to collaborate for the production of a post-hardcore album (Die Abete - Tutto O Niente)