RCrd Producer, Sound Engineer

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

A: Depending on the job for which I am hired for, as a sound engineer, I can provide professional music recordings in my recording studio "OWL Recordings" at ECMusic Productions, or to provide music services as Compositions, Arrangements, Mixing and Mastering.

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

A: I've been mixing and mastering music for the past 10 years. I've worked with many of international singers, artists and bands including Alessia Ballarò, Andrea Tebaldi, Rachel Bailey (USA), Davide Lo lacono, Francesca Di Benedetto, Leonardo Addati, Ludovica Pisano, Marco Puri, Pete Mroz (Usa) Maria Dessì, Marina Giulia Brocca, The Workday (Uk), Moreno Schiavone, Martina Barani. Ash Gale (Aus), Robert Jon & the Wreck(USA) and many more. I say all this only because I want you to know that the music you've worked incessantly to create, is in the hands of someone who know what they're doing. All the necessary steps in creating any professional music product, in services such as Recording, Mixing or Mastering, one of the easiest things to committ is screw up all the general work. I've seen countless bands waste money without knowing in what way the will achieve their objectives. I'm here to make you sound good. That's it.

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

A: 1) My '54 Gibson Les Paul "Junior" 2) My '78 Fender Vibrolux guitar amp 3) A laptop with pro tools 4) An UREI 1176 Rev.A 5) A solar power generator.

Q: What do you bring to a song?

A: In every job I bring all my expertise and technician skills, merging them to customers artistic abilities and their musical ideas. As I think, this is the best way to generate something really important and interesting.

Q: Tell us about your studio setup.

A: Studio gears: UAD Apollo 16, Avid Pro Tools 12, Avid custom keyboard, a pair of Genelec 1032B and a pair of JBL Control5 as studio Audio Monitors, Mackie Big Knob Studio Controller, Avid Eleven Rack, AVALON VT737SP, Neumann v472 preamp, Art Tube Mp/c Tube Preamp/Comp., Rode NT1-A MP, Lewitt LCT 340, AVID Artist Control, Tascam TM-D8000, AVID Artist Mix, AKG k240 MkII, AKG k240 MkII, AKG K271 MKII Musical Instruments: '54 Gibson Les Paul Junior, '66 Gybson Les Paul Gold Top, '74 Gibson 335 TD, Fender Telecaster modern player, Fender Standard Jazz Bass. Yamaha P115-B Piano, '72 Fender Vibrolux Amp, '66 Marshall Super Lead Amp.

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

A: It is very difficult, and maybe I don't like ;-), to choose the best among past projects for which I've worked even in different roles. I liked them a lot, each of them in different and particular reasons. That has permitted to me to accomplish the objectives for wich customers hired me.

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

A: Budget and Workflow? :-) Knowing that it explains itself, I answer preparing a detailed proposal, about the job for which they are deciding to hire me or not. I explain also that I want to obtain the best results for their investment and, how I will accomplish that job. All of that is important for me too.

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

A: I started playing piano when I was '9 and I never stopped playing music. I received a Bachelor of Music degree in piano playing performance conferred at the Conservatorio and a Bachelor of Music degree in Guitar performance and Music Production/Sound Engineering at "Università della musica" in Rome. Next I've been playing in many music bands, I really loved it but when, '15 years ago, I started working as a producer and sound engineer, I felt that this was my way.

Q: What's your strongest skill?

A: The tenacity to follow the idea of ​​the project, might it be mine or the client's, by now the experience has allowed me to clarify and know the way how to pursue and reach the goal,

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

A: Ben Harper, Dave Matthews, Greg Laswell, Eddie Vedder, Counting Crows, Citizen Cope, Beck, Hazmat Modine, Ingrid Michaelson, Lenny Kravitz and many many more. Setting aside for a moment the fact that they are all great artists, the reason is that each of them inspired and "teached" me first as a musician and today, as a session reference listening as a mixing and mastering engineer.

Q: What are you working on at the moment?

A: I'm mixing right now an interessant song by an emerging artist named Blanca.

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

A: I usually work on Rock, Pop and Indie music.

Q: How would you describe your style?

A: The simpler the better.

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

A: Musicians and artists: Greg Laswell, John Legend, Beastie Boys, Alicia Keys, Lana Del Rey, Bob Dylan, Beck, The Cranberries, Tom Waits, The Roots, Tinariwen, The Wallflower, The Rolling Stones, Keith Jarret, Sting, Stevie Wonder, Jamiroquai, Doyle Bramhall, Counting Crows, Bruce Springsteen, No Doubt, Adele, Aerosmith, Amy Mcdonald, Ani Di Franco, Buena Vista Social Club, Cake, Ben Harper, Lenny Kravitz, Queen, City and Colour, Citizen Cope. Music Production Pros: Al Schmitt, Mick Guzauski, Andrew Scheps, Mark Needham, Dave Pensado, Sylvia Massi, John Paterno, Vance Powell, Fab Dupont and many more.

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

A: A microphone doesn't make a singer as a software doesn't make a producer. Both are just highly skilled pro tools that every professional must know how to use the best.

Q: What questions do you ask prospective clients?

A: I often ask my customers to describe themselves, the "vision" they want to represent in their music and, last but not least, I ask them the goals to which they aspire, even if still intended as a dream. This way I better know them and we could start to work together.

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

A: Here on SoundBetter there are many colleagues that I would recommend because I know them or because I like their way to work but, I believe that being all true professional, the most important aspect is always listening to their portfolio of past jobs before deciding anyone to hire.

Q: Analog or digital and why?

A: I think there is no reason to be biased all depends on the job we are doing and on the sound we're trying to achieve. As for an example, it could like to combine acoustic drums with a digital one because we like what we are listening or maybe, the sound is what's right for that job. Never say never.

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

A: Let's create something that makes you proud. You've written or you want now, songs you believe in. You have a vision for your sound. Now it's time to put your baby into the hands of someone else. That's where I come in. ECMusic Productions will work with you; turning your vision into a finished and polished recording production that you feel proud of and that your fans can enjoy for the rest of your lives.

Q: What do you like most about your job?

A: Having the possibility, expertise and skills, to feel and understand the music from its inception stage and then shape it, to get a different and better result than before, a result that is what customers were searching and for which I've been hired. That's what makes me love my job.

Q: Can you share one music production tip?

A: Yes of course, I hope to help people in a mistake that I myself made in the past. I often receive already recorded files of a song to mix, processed with too much gain reduction on compressors or limiters generating this way much volume in the out but, that is useless especially in premaster stage and furthermore it creates a nasty harmonic distortion and excessive crushing in the resulting audio file. This is unpleasant and I don't like it :-)!

Q: What's your typical work process?

A: First of all I ever organize a chitchat with customers, I want to listen to their needings, to have clear in mind their musical vision and, with it, what they are aspiring to achieve. Next, when possible, I like to listen the raw demos of their songwriting, to get a feel for the song, as it was in their image of it. Depending on the job I was hired for, I take care to obtain the results always in the best way, following the customer initial ideas.