Sound Enhancing Studio

Q: What are you working on at the moment?

A: I have recently finished the production of an Industrial Metal band.

Q: Analog or digital and why?

A: Oh my god this is "The Big Question": have you got enough time to read the answer? Despite of what most of artists (and engineers sometimes) think, digital has reached such a perfection level in sampling and dynamic range that, if you work in a 48Khz/24bit envinronment, it's difficult (if not impossible) recognise an ITB from an OTB mix. CD sound is far better than a Vynil one (no noise, more transparency, more fidelity), and the modern A/D and D/A converters are incredibly clean and precise. But there are some limits: in the digital domain it's very important to keep the right headroom, and there's less space to handle that in comparison to analog domain (above all when you have to reach an high RMS), so there are some differences when you mix ITB or OTB. I can say that a good sound engineer who uses only digital stuff will always reach a better result than a mediocre one who has tons of analog gears.

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

A: To do my best to make a great song shine.

Q: What do you like most about your job?

A: Everything, from A to Z. Really, no complaints about that. The only repent is that, in my country, is very difficult to live with only this job. The lucky ones are less and less, it's a pity because we Italians invented a lot of tricks and ways of record and mix in the past years.

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

A: About mastering of course: there's a sort of "legend aura" around this one. Many people think that mastering can fix a bad mix, or make a passable song shine. Obviously this is not true, everything in the audio chain (from musicians themselves to the post-production) is extremely important, with a "domino effect" on the following phase. Bad performance leads to a bad recording, that leads to a bad mix that, of course, leads to a bad mastering. Everyone has to be professional, no one could expect a "Grammy Award" final product if the initial performance made by the artist was just passable.

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

A: Choose with your ears, not with your eyes. That means not to be impressed by a lot of gears or the "big expensive console": we're in the 21th century, not in the seventies. Big expensive gears and mixers are not more a "must" to reach a great goal.

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

A: My ears, my computer, my DAW, my plugins and a pair of headphones. That's the 90%: all the rest is that "10%" plus, not necessary if you have to work on a desert island.

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

A: SAE degree in 2010 (Milan), live and studio experience during this decade, I am still a PA engineer in some venues. I am tester/beta tester for new audio products and I write reviews for an Italian Pro Audio Magazine (www.audiofader.com).

Q: How would you describe your style?

A: Set, thoughtful, precise, both creative and corrective in a well balanced way.

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

A: Any artist whose music capture my attention, really: no preferences. I love music before genres or artists themselves.

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

A: Metal, Hard Rock, Reggae, Psych-Rock, Pop, Indie.

Q: What's your strongest skill?

A: It's up to others say that.

Q: What do you bring to a song?

A: Life, coherence, punch, roundness, the right RMS for CD or Streaming.

Q: What's your typical work process?

A: Listen. A lot of time listening to the rough mix and "feeling" what the final sound should be. Every song has its "Identity Card" already written inside, the sound engineer should always understand what songs and artists are trying to say, to share, to bring alive. Then I start Eqing the drums bus, as if it was a single instrument. It's very important, because you won't be able to recover this step further. Drums (if there are any) are 70% of a good mix: you miss it, you miss the mix. Then it's time to eq and comp every drum single piece, once done that I start with bass, then guitars, then any keyboard/efx, and, as soon as I have a good backing track (reverbered where it's needed), I start adding the vocal track. For mastering sessions the process is less creative of course but, nevertheless, it's extremeley important not to kill the "track breathing" with over-compression. Differential RMS between intro and verse, verse and chorus, for example, is very important to give that sense of "punch" that is not given by the absolute RMS itself. Finally, of course, it's very important to clean the side of the mix removing with surgical precision all the resonances and stationary freqs, to have a clean and transparent final product.

Q: Tell us about your studio setup.

A: I work with most of the DAWs, in both analogue and digital domain, my studio setup is simple and aimed for mixing and post-prodution: that means I an NOT a recording studio, but a mixing and mastering one. DAWs: Pro Tools Ultimate, Logic X, Cubase 10, Reaper, Studio One 3, Digital Performer 9. Outboards: Neve, Heritage, Warm Audio, SSL, Junger, Universal Audio, Teletronix, Dangerous, Lexicon, Dbx, Focusrite, Empirical Labs, ClarkTeknik. Plugins: Waves, Eventide, SSL, Focusrite, Acustica Audio, Brainworx, WaveArts, Digidesign, Avid, Lexicon, Softube. Monitors: Genelec 1030A. Audio Interface: Universal Audio Apollo, Focusrite Clarett 8preX. Acoustic Room Treatment: GIK Acoustics.

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

A: Bob Rock, Michael Stavrou, Jack Joseph Puig, Alberto Cutolo.

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

A: Mix and Mastering with all the best analogue and digital toosl on the market. Audio design and editing for any kind of video. Reviews for pro audio magazines, tester for new products to be released (also beta tester).