Producer | Composer | Bassist

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

A: I will always aim for the best quality, clarity and emotion I can get and dedicate myself fully to enhance your art. I take my work very seriously.

Q: What do you like most about your job?

A: I love music. It is my biggest passion so to be able to be part of the creative process or help with the technical aspects of other musicians' creations is just very fulfilling for me

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

A: +Where are you based? -In Rome, Italy + Can you add sound effects and midi instruments to the mix? - yes, for an extra price that we can agree on. + Does your mix work include editing? - not usually, but I can edit little details as I mix. If the editing needed is too much like tuning vocals, plus time alignment and comping of several tracks then I will do it for an extra fee. + Can you tune vocal tracks? What software do you use? - Yes of course, I use Melodyne. +Do you edit audio? what tools do you use for it? + Yes, I can edit, build tempo maps from a performance, adapt a recorded performance to a tempo map, do phase and time alignment, vocal and instrument tuning, noise removal and all the necessary work to deliver stem tracks that are ready to mix. I use Izotope Rx to fix spectral finesse, details and noise removal and Studio One Pro to do the rest. + Can you master my track/s for different platforms? - Yes, when I deliver the master I do copy with optimized loudness/volume for each streaming platform. + What is your bass rig? - A Yamaha TRB1006 J 6-string and a Tech21 Sansamp Bass driver amp. + How long does it take you to mix and master a single track? - An average of 3 days, I take my time to refresh my ears and bring the best results possible when I deliver them back to you!

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

A: Mixing and/or mastering doesn't include editing! that would be a separate job with a different price.

Q: What questions do you ask prospective clients?

A: - When do you need your mix/master/track/bass line done? (deadline) - Are all your tracks labeled and in lossless wav or aiff format? - What is the inspiration for your music? - Do you have a reference track that I could use to have an inspiration and direction as I work? - Do you have any particular request for your production?

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

A: I would say my latest EP recording and mixing with The Ship and the Swell as it is a project that challenged me to take on the role of co-producer, recording engineer and mixing engineer. In "Carnet de Voyage" I got to to work on one of the best and most well-equipped recording studios in Rome, use top of the line analog gear and microphones and use my gut to choose the best way to get the best sound out of the band while recording live on separate tracks, even choosing each musician's position in the room and taking care of many logistics. I was really satisfied with the final result. Check it out: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSAS-F1ukIJoIZ0zOYuoq7w

Q: What are you working on at the moment?

A: I am working on a pop album with a client online providing production advice, arrangement, mixing and mastering. Each musician is in a different part of the world. So it is a very interesting "come together" kind of project

Q: Can you share one music production tip?

A: Always listen to what the song tells you before adding, modifying or processing anything. Let your ears tell you what's needed instead of your brain.

Q: Analog or digital and why?

A: Digital. It is convenient, takes less energy, costs less to acquire and maintain and little by little it is not only sounding better and emulating analog but also new generations are just used to it already.

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

A: Be communicative, provide references, artists and albums you like and deliver your recordings with correct naming and in order.

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

A: Honestly a good laptop computer, an interface, my monitors and my headphones would be enough. My bass too!

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

A: I first started as a musician. Playing electric bass in high school with some of my best friends. later on forming bands and projects with them which lead me to deviate from the path of being an electronic engineer to pursue a career in audio engineering instead. I went to Audioplace Audio Engineering and Music Production School in Caracas, Venezuela and after 5 years got my degree in audio engineering and music production. From there on I started working hard in many different projects like mixing band singles, my own bands EP's, doing editing work for audiovisual productions, mixing and composing soundtracks for independent film school projects, mixing and mastering publicity spots, radio jingles, a complete metal album and more great experiences. I've been doing this for more than 8 years.

Q: How would you describe your style?

A: My style is meticulous, almost mathematic and precise but always with the intention of enhancing the feeling of music and captivating the listener.

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

A: I would love to work with Steven Wilson. I feel I would learn a lot with him, he is a very creative and knowledgeable producer of his own art and knows every kind of hardware, gears and instruments and how to blend it in his songs.

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

A: Most usually I get asked to work on independent music projects that have pop, rock, folk, acoustic, cinematic and sometimes metal kind of style.

Q: What's your strongest skill?

A: My strongest skill is patience I would say. I like to take my time to do my work as meticulously and perfectly as I can, even if it's gonna be, let's say, an automation on high shelf filter of a guitar throughout a whole song to ensure a good balance and dynamic feel.

Q: What do you bring to a song?

A: I bring analysis, input and creativity. Always aiming to understand and then enhance the intention, emotion and feeling of the artist who trusted me with their art. Be it in the mixing, mastering, arranging or composition stage this is what I strive to bring aside from pro quality and clarity.

Q: What's your typical work process?

A: The first thing for me is to listen to the rough mix, or the idea carefully. Give it a few listens to analyze what it needs, what it already has and how can i improve it. Then I proceed to check and fix technical aspects as gain structure, any rough edits or details there may be in the audio, tuning, grouping tracks, rebalancing the rough mix to my taste etc. After this I have already base ground to start working around and mix. I would start processing the most important element in the mix (it could be the vocals, it could be the guitar, the drums it depends). And from there on I would go through each element sculpting it's sound giving it their own space in the frequency spectrum and stereo image using EQ, compression, analog emulators of preamps and more. After that I complete the mixing stage by doing a very detailed automation every place where it's necessary and then add in the reverbs, delays and fx sends and busses which I then also automate. The automation part is super important for me as this is where I really come to enhance emotions and dynamics in a song. I then stop, listen a couple of times, compare to reference mixes. Make changes if necessary and deliver. If I have to also master a song then I wait at least a day and then put myself to master the stereo track. Applying EQ, mid side processing, compression, multiband dynamics, saturation and limiting in order to achieve a good sound that translates virtually everywhere while listening to the output on different sources like my monitors, 2 pairs of headphones and my cellphone.

Q: Tell us about your studio setup.

A: I have a simple yet efficient home studio setup comprised of powerful custom built PC with a Ryzen 7 8-core processor, a Focusrite Scarlett 4i4 audio interface, a pair of Beyer Dynamic DT990 Pro Headphones, an Arturia Minilab mkII MIDI controller, a pair of Adam Audio T5V professional monitors and a vast collection of plugins from Waves Audio, Slate Digital, Fabfilter, Brainworx and software including my main DAW which is Presonus Studio One and Izotope RX 8 for audio restoration and in depth spectral cleaning of raw recordings. I have as well a bunch of virtual instrument libraries that I use for my arrangements and compositions from Native Instruments, Audio Imperia and Spitfire Audio. Finally I have my Yamaha TRB 1006 6 string bass guitar and a Harley Benton Strat-type electric guitar to record and help in my compositions.

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

A: This list could go for ages but to cite just a few musicians: Iron Maiden, Haken, Steven Wilson, RHCP, Opeth, Sia, Trivium, Tigran Hamasyan, Jacob Collier. And as mixing and producers go: Chris Lord-Alge, Jens Bogren, Tony Masseratti, Rick Rubin, Andrew Scheps and many more.

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

A: Most commonly I get asked to mix and master single tracks. Which most of the time entails also a little bit of editing and tuning work here and there. Then I also get asked sometimes to add some elements arrangements to already laid down productions, like orchestral accompaniments, percussions, ambiences and sound design which is more on the production service than mixing and mastering.