Hybrid Mixes, Analog Heart!

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

A: If I can make them sound good and I always answer that I'm no jesus, I can't turn water into wine :D I will sure make my best to make a sloppy production sounds more professional and powerful, but the secret of a great sounding track, is a great sounding performance played with great sounding instruments and recording with great sounding gear!

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

A: That anyone with a mac or pc, cubase and some plugins can do what I do.

Q: What questions do you ask prospective clients?

A: I usually ask to some reference material, their favourite artist and what they would like the production to sound!

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

A: Do not be impressed by tons of gear, money can buy anything, but not talent and a good ear ;) and always listen to some previous work of the Engineer, ask your question and try to understand if you're on the same wavelength with him.

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

A: mhhhhh... an Api512c and a pre-eq Neve '73, surley a distressor and an LA-2A and my ESP Eclipse obviously!

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

A: I've started buying a small interface and recording with garage band in august 2010, I then rent a small room in a public building, bought an 8 track interface, have worked a lot with my band, recording a Demo and an EP. Then some live recordings for some friends. In the meanwhile I've started working with a local service as a FoH Engineer. I've then build a room in my house and started my little project studio. I've work in 2 years with 10 bands recording about 26 songs and mixing many more. Now I've a fully upgraded system for all kind of productions and if necessary I can rent a local full analog studio.

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

A: I would like to work with Steven Wilson, I don't know how it's possible, but I feel like we're on the same frequency, I love his songs, I love the way he writes music, I love the way he mixes and all of his albums are in my "best sounding albums" chart!

Q: Can you share one music production tip?

A: If it sounds good, it is good :D

Q: What's your typical work process?

A: Typically I begin by clearing all the track and doing the necessary comping, then I Reamp al the tracks through my apollo system using the Unison Technology of my preamps, it's useful to make the tracks sound more natural and to add some analog feeling to the recording. Then I start balancing the volumes and placing the instruments in the stereo field, generally beginning with the kick and the snare, but sometimes i start with the lead vocals; When I'm fine with what I hear, I begin processing those tracks I'm sure they need compression or eq. Then I apply further processing, reverbs and delays. I finalise the project with a buss compressor. For the more demanding production I hire a local studio and mix on an Amek desk,

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

A: I usually work on rock, metal and pop music. Lately I'm more into acoustic and I'm discovering EDM

Q: What's your strongest skill?

A: I'm a trained musician and composer, so when I mix a tune I don't only know what's going on in terms of frequencies, instruments, microphone used ecc. ecc. I deeply understand the harmony, the melody, the groove and the mood of the song and this helps me doing a better (and more musical) mix.

Q: What do you bring to a song?

A: Clarity and power; thanks to a combined tecnique of drums triggering and gating I manage to keep drums sound natural and "In Your Face". Reamping all the tracks through UA preamps with Unison Technology I can really make the tracks sound like they were recorded on Universal Audio 610 Preamps or on a API console.

Q: Tell us about your studio setup.

A: I usually work in my Home Studio in which I have my Universal Audio Apollo System (one Apollo Twin Duo and Apollo Duo) for a total of 26 Inputs and 20 Outputs. This spring I'm going to upgrade the studio buying a mixing console (Mackie 32.8 made in USA) and a couple of Urei 1176. I've a couple of EMES Black TV HR as main monitors. The Plugins I use most are UA API Vision Channel Strip, UA 1176 Collection, UA LA-2A Collection, Waves API Collection, Waves CLA Series, UA Pultec Collection. Lately I started collaborating with a bigger studio with a lot of outboards and a mixing console, so for more demanding production I will choose working in this kind of environment.

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

A: As a Musician the people inspired me most are Andy Timmons, Steven Wilson, Gavin Harrison, Marco Minneman, Paul Gilbert and Guthrie Govan. As a Sound Engineer if I have to pick one it would be Chris Lord-Alge. As a Composer probably were Nobuo Uematsu and Hans Zimmer.

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

A: Generally multitrack recordings, mixing, mastering, arrangements and guitar sessions but lately I've started to do acoustic live sessions and live recordings. I do compositions for videogames and movies too.