Studio Tour: Spaventi Mastering Studio

hi guys and welcome back to Redstone Productions today we are visiting a very nice mastering studio for a dear friend of mine hey guys hi guys [Music] [Music] a little background we are come from the same city in Italian you come from Roma that's uh yeah Melting Pot of personalities Romans in Amsterdam Romans in Amsterdam there's quite a few um so I came over to study sound uh after having an initial normal start to the university like because you did your bachelor degree in Rome right I did my degree I had my degree in Rome I originally started in Padua which is another Italian city the first year family reasons and then we moved back to Rome and I went on studying Electronics so I did five years quite handy as well when it comes down to absolutely absolutely on the paper definitely handy but we know the university in Italy it's a lot of books a lot of theory not much practice so on the paper I could maybe build the most awesome amplifier but in practice nobody ever showed me a transistor for example so if I if I saw one I was like this thing I was telling University but then I also had this strong interest in music playing in a band you know I was like the keyboardist so originally I started with piano and an organ and then I got into scenes originally with the bat okay and then it's funny because a friend gave me a tape of like electronic stuff produced here in Holland very underground stuff and I I listened to it and I was like shocked because all these sounds were really like organic but really electronic and you know the the the the fascinating thing about cassette tape it has this sound at the same time they represented like me exploring synthesis but also being fascinated by this Northern country which is Holland because the production were coming from here yeah so I was like done with University I was like it I want to do sound and then I looked for essay because at the time I say it was the only place in Italy that you could give a bit of credit you know like you know how it is either it's like University any degree so it's that kind of Direction essay was giving you a diploma so something like with the title you know true and uh pretty much giving you all of the basic skill sets yeah to figure out a lot of things that you know like I was already doing but without really knowing my way and uh but then again living in Rome if I had to change City at the time I was like I don't want to go to Milan I had the same you know like I wouldn't change CD and go to another Italian city uh let me just go a bit further so I went to Holland I came to Holland because of course for the guys out there I say in Italy is only present in Milan they're both from Rome and I think yeah we had kind of a similar I think yeah thing we're like do I really like to move out of Rome to move to Milan to study at essay maybe let's try something else and Amsterdam actually it was the place point out in Europe London was the other option it was a bit too expensive at the time right and Holland was the only place in English like where they teach in English so I came over to visit and I visited the school and I still remember the day I came in and the school gave me this really nice feeling because at the time it was in Norway still in north but the time was this kind of secluded you know like a bit of a is it like far away from the center plus the north is something like a lot of situation so I arrived there I was like where am I but the school was really cool at least you know in my eyes at the time yeah and lastly we used to work there gave me the tour okay I never had the pleasure of meeting you never met less you know no Leslie you know a guy was cool uh then he left a city went back to England lost track okay but he showed me the SSL and uh it's funny because you know like I wanted to do EMP which is the electronic music production of course yeah and because that was kind of natural and then maybe with the option to then do the diploma course so they're more intense of the audio engineering one yeah correct and uh talking to Leslie he told me because if you enter the SSL room and you he could see my eyes going like to say you know like like I was already been into sound and Studios and and I so I realized the cell I was like man this is so cool and all these knobs and then I already knew that there's a cell feature the compressor on every channel and I told less I was like this is the one with all the compressors per Channel it looked and was like yeah man that's the one and then he said maybe you should just keep the EMP and do the diploma course right away and I was like what are you doing I was like yeah maybe sure so I long story short came over and did the one year got it one of the funniest coolest years of my life man is like because he's like studying something you really like color in a cool environment with friends people are all interested at the time was a cool it's a really nice Vibe back in yes yeah it's it's when you when you arrived it it was still kind of that Vibe it was those few years were strong like a lot of colleagues that we have now of the same course eventually around the world doing their thing did I say that been teaching for scalo then I go off for a job in TV right so I migrated from SC to TV to do like mixing basically promo mixing broadcasting stuff paid well not fun not fun at all at least for my taste you know right people like it it's actually can be fun but it's mainly post-production post production was maybe mixing for broadcast space and uh it's cool at the beginning and it becomes repetitive then you get a lot of stress from other people in the same company because the timeline commercials commercial board so exactly you need stuff uh right away blah blah blah but in all of these I got offered to master a record because I was already kind of you know mastering something you don't really decide to do you kind of end up doing because like a lot of things in audio you Perfection your skills naturally in a certain direction yeah and then given the response of people you start to take yourself a bit more serious because you do it and then you do it again and then people have always positive response and then you start to get into it and then you get better and then so but let's say that my luck is shot uh which is a label I still work for which is the deltin label from Amsterdam yeah yeah I I checked your resume and you did a lot of work for them yeah that's a lot it's almost 10 years that I worked for them and at the time I was connected from the production side because we were producing music and this music was gonna be hopefully brought out by the label the guy from the label was like uh your stuff always sounds good we have a deadline so we need a LLP to be mastered ASAP give it a go okay and it's like you don't realize it but it's that's still like a shot because you do it you do it well the artist is Happy the label is happy and then it just starts like that and then snowballs into yeah working more and more for them yeah and then and then he happened to be like uh do another job and then they're happy and then of course if a label finds an engineer that works well for less money still so they hired me like because of the demo starting so obviously my fees were like lower than what they are nowadays compared to the bigger Studio that were like already bigger than that you know like but so it was and I remember like the thing is mastering is about being sure about what you hear correct and it's a combination of being comfortable and being sure and at the time I had my comfort zone at home and the security of the sound in the studios in school okay so my first mastering gig went like this went started a home because first I needed to feel the music in a way that I was comfortable about so I played the record on my speakers at home the mighty HR maybe before yes Nike speakers at home made in the US and by combination my house had the non-parallel walls all right so it sounded just fine and I was like okay so I started at home mastered my old PC you know like Tower and then in the evening I got my PC I went in school and installed it in the studio there and I went on the home line to Perfection the Masters then I sent them out and the guy was super happy thanks I was like it works so for a few years since then I started to work nighttime so I was always working in school with a laptop doing mastering like that to be it was fun first years I had my laptop logic uh Optical Connection into the converter there in school so it's just monitor All In The Box okay that's interesting because you know that's how you started you didn't have your own let's say massive outboard gear setup no not at all laptop playing out in two different speaker setups the whole new one and the one well at home I didn't really do it anymore because this because then I got more used to the sound of the student of course at that point you got comfort and good sound because it was it was night time so school was quiet in North there's nothing right at some point some nights I was like man like 5 a.m you exit the place I'm still here bicycle go get your Ferry yeah that's the same I I brought bands and record them at school and I would finish I would pretty much start a team 10 p.m and finish at 7 00 a.m so I will get out and my colleagues will get in and be like yep yeah a couple of times they just found me there yeah all night long it's one of the good and the bad side of it a couple of times I had to supervise in the morning so just do the night and then work so like a few flowers and then arrive home but you could do that you know like 27 28 whatever there you go and uh your very first let's say Studio setup my very first Studio setup was my very first investment that I did in into mastering which was speakers good converter and one decent outboard gear and guess what well besides the speakers converters there modeling controller is there and the Avalon is still there 10 years the team man there you go so you still have it that's again that's uh that speaks volume of how important it is also not to cheap out at the very beginning and kind of wait learn the gear get to use them and dance like I think this will be a staple as something that will survive yeah I mean convert is basic speakers basic monitor control of quality basically I could have saved a bit on this probably yeah but I was like you know what you take a loan you invest like 9k you invest 10 or 10.5 k doesn't matter much on the long term but especially if you see you know if you see the the amount of work increasing and it's like okay that's that's a good investment right now and I kept the speakers for a long time too like 10 years almost I am a mighty PMC oh those were my first so yeah okay and yeah you already started with the big boys yeah because I had good colleagues like all colleagues that were into the field and asked I was like I wanna I wanna get a basic uh mastering pack what was that that was those were the PMC IB 1s 1s yeah those passive passive external amp okay the amp was the equivalent of a the d-class amp like uh yeah a high back so but not that another brand American but a Class D but it's super clean no emphasis just flat out not as entertaining and engaging for those speakers not as a bryston set yeah of course which is next level I mean I remember visiting you the previous Studio where you were knocked love yeah that was the that was the best studio I've had so far yeah yeah that was the studio that where I grew my career to the point that I could now do this for a living right that was an unclap Studio that was a second Studio that was all right okay and that's the studio where I could really exploit the gear that I had because you know the gear goes along with your monitoring situation yeah your room and the bmc's originally went into this smaller Studio it was still kind of a room in a room but kind of you know like a bit amaterally produced a smaller so the speakers had their sound but also but the Declaration of the room was still pretty important so it was a lot of headphones and double checking like I wasn't as sure as I was with the sound I mean let me bring up this point if I can uh so very often also when I teach mastering or introduction to mastering to my students the most important thing besides your own set of ears of course that we can't really do anything about that it's the actual monitoring setup which doesn't happen it's which is the combination of the room the acoustic treatment and the actual speakers Paramount so that is because what you cannot hear you cannot fix it no basically if you're driving blind it's there's no way you can really assess and if you don't hear it properly it's more difficult to make an informed decision on objective decision so a decision that translates well in the outside world you are the last quality control check before the release this is the market correct so you want to make sure that it's loud enough competitive enough matches specific references but that it's gonna play out no matter on which setup so that's definitely one yeah but that's the point like if you if you if you refine your your listening environment to the point that you know when it sounds just right that means it translates as best as it can everywhere that's the point the difficult part is to get to that situation where you you know your speakers room combination so well and you are used so much to work into this environment that you can just decide something and be sure about it I mean that's that's super true so that's why you're a master Engineers of a certain caliber they stick in the same room with the same speakers for like 30 five years indeed you cannot fix what you cannot hear properly no you cannot second guess yourself at the mastering stage because there's nobody else going to take care of that no no exactly it all contributes to build this sort of feeling of the sound the other side of the story is how far you can afford a reproduction system of a certain quality because and once you arrive there you know like at the time I already had a few years with the Mackies so the pmcs were kind of the natural step up because you invest some more money not so much and their speakers are really really revealing like they're top speakers like if they're set up nicely I still really like the sound of those but then I got this in uh in end of last year so beginning of this year what are these for the guys out there these are these are a modern conceptual speaker these are speakers that integrate a lot of electronics and they are the opposite of a traditional passive speaker like a PMC speaker because PMC speakers just a passive design to perform in a certain way but the room is very influential these things they have DSP controlled electronics that first of all keeps the sound extremely focused so the way all the drivers are aligned and the way the the sound is projected toward you from both speakers at the same time it's very accurate so already that represents a clearer vision plus they have a a tricky driver setup that helps to direct the sound most in front of you so they have basically what we call the cardioid polar pattern and this cardioid parapatter goes down to like seriously down like 50 hertz it's very directive so and because of that it focuses the sound new rather than the room so the room gets less excited in a way yeah so the coloring of the room itself diminishes changing and setting up these sort of speakers because they are hyper directive correct and they go they keep this directivity all the way down yeah all the way down to very sub frequencies yeah which is of course like for a Mustang setup with a room that let you do that I got them with the extension so the extension gives at the same time more power right more bass and a lower lower frequency range I mean these are the key three with the bxt yeah these are the key three with the bxt extension so the base extension and they go down to 19. but they go down to 19 with ease that's the thing so it's like they are so revealing it's like at the beginning it was like I was opening some sort of uh microscope into the sound see at the mid-range is like stupid but and that also represented a whole lot of extra information that I wasn't used to you know like it's normal like now I hear better I hear more I can refine my decisions I think as with any new set of speakers it took a while to get used it's like okay is this too bright oh no no this is the new mid-range punch that's the reference correct like how much the the three kilohertz the one kilohertz they penetrate your your ears and how much is enough and how much is too much that's the thing using them same way now funny thing it's it's not a yeah it's definitely not an entry level so to speak no no but it's uh relatively affordable that's the thing because if you think in those terms like this is kind of top level yeah like this can this can compete against the massive General X flash Mount you know like yeah with a BMW with your name with a big Ambit way you know like uh maybe with those in a big room you get more more volume correct but the accuracy of the sound and what you can hear it's and the focus of it is the focus in the basement it's like that tight bass it's like but then again you see like headphones and those yeah to the contrary those are like some crappy DJ headphones they're nothing too special but they have a sound and I use them super long so they represent another reference and they're here so all of a sudden they're here in any space so I can you know start a master at home come here do a check on the speakers so balance it out and this helped me to transition from the old system to this system to use it as a sort of sort of like temporary reference or something that I can carry with me and it depends of course also on the complexity of the music you know like if you're doing some just house electronic stuff what important is the vibe speaking of which so I mean when it comes down to clients and what sort of music you normally get to master I started with electronic music mostly house sometimes disco um and then what happens is that you do it and you do it and you do it so your name kind of starts to bounce around okay and then you get clients a bit from everything from people that listen to your music people that listen to the label you work for people that follow an artist and they are interested into finding another mastering engineer because they also produce music people that you for example you work for label on a stable basis and the label has a certain roster of um artists yeah so maybe you get to master release from a certain artist and the artist releases another label they are well impressed by your work so they like to work with you again and they propose it to the other label the other label that you do the job or not depends of course sometimes it happens that the other label likes to work and then they offer remote releases yeah I mean so for for a good like let's say 2017 18 and 19. I was working like this so mastering around and also working for TV so a full agenda so I was in the studio all day every day and then on top of that producing music mixing for friends and then like I was teaching teachings occasionally yeah teaching still right so this was like full agenda then I kind of quit TV because like I said it's it's a it's a war that you have to um how do you say that in English you have to keep up you have to show up you have to know people you have to establish a certain public relations side of things that it's more important with music if you do it good the music speaks by itself you don't have to go around and like uh ask for a favor or stuff like that so producing music and releasing music publishing the music or the occasional post you know like be present on the social media also helps I mean of course it's like it's a business you know I have to keep it up a bit fast forward a couple of years more here we are so this is the latest incarnation of the spalante mastering Studio because nowadays family bigger house right a lot of scenes and production gear accumulated lower synthetic like this that's my passion modular scenes as well when I'm not working for anybody I'm stealing sounds I'm still like doing my thing with the scenes and producing music this this here in the background is all stuff that I produced here and there so you sort of have your own production set up home yes there's a small room equipped with like gear so there I make music and check the occasional job and have a mirrored system so I can open the sessions there if I need the stuff this is the mastering sub so if I'm mastering I'm here and I'm sure all of our audiences uh looking forward to see all of the gear that you actually use and how you employ I know there's a lot of stuff to go over it obviously you don't get all of these all together it's like this is step by step yes and every step is well directed to a certain need or a certain wish that you have and the last thing that I got one of the most important pieces in a mastering setup yeah is the mastering transfer console there we go so this thing the backbone from Monday the monthly backbone and the reason why I only got it recently is the reasons two reasons one reason is that it's held expensive one is money the second reason is that it's not so easy to find true because manly only produced The Limited versions of this it's not on production anymore so you only find the occasional guy who is either not mastering anymore or guarded and then a business change so he's getting real and seriously I found it on on a Facebook group by the way worldwide mastering Engineers Facebook group top top top level people totally cool before it goes to real.com and yes reputation there's help it's great forum possibly on the reason why I use Facebook not true money backbone online for like Bob six hours seven hours I saw it message right away and I literally messaged right before another guy who eventually got another one but this is how they go so it's like it shows up somebody wants it on the list got it I mean this is your centerpiece that's right every kind of piece of this is what gives you the option to interact with the computer because the computer represents your your Central Point anyway because nowadays you work digital so um recording the process seeing the archiving fighting everything everything is there so actually nowadays you could just Master with the computer in the box which is nothing wrong man because like sometimes it just does the job but right if you can you use outboard gear for the fact for the simple reason that first of all is more real there's something about running the sound throughout board that at the same time represents a difference and in an inherent difference with the computer because you're not using Digital Data but you're using you know electricity correct but also is the not emotional but like human factor side you're not setting at the screen moving a mouse around it's very much more tactile and real in the interaction that you have so there's not only the outcome but it's the process as always that also makes you reach other yes okay because that experience is different uh eventually is the outcome of course but because if you wanted to be real like if you want to be realistic sorry I mean you could Master something you could Master it again through the gear and then you could compare the Masters and I'm not telling you that the gear will win no like maybe they're in the Box Master instead centers the the bull High the bullseye better because that's what the music needs it's all about what the music needs but the way you reach that goal that's up to you so next we have good monitoring if you have experience and you know what the music needs in the box or output gear do your thing the client will barely be able to hear this or they don't really mind or they don't care because it sounds great yeah they're happy and the music is being treated well yeah yeah but in my career I've got I've had a bit of everything a classic mastering stories which are like we we have a lot of fun within months the guy who's like oh dude I think you mastered everything in digital because it sounds like this I mastered everything in our look classic so you don't like the sound just say so it's it's like it's you know you know or like you know another thing that is very important that I understood quite initially is that Communications and relations are important as as a good job the only way you can actually get a good job done yeah is if you interact with the client if you communicate with the client if the client is able to tell exactly what they want or an idea what they want and you are able to deliver that then again classic stories you know it's like you start mastering something then you have a conversation with the client and realize that the direction was another one so then you just all right that's that's classic you know it's like getting to know what they really want yeah yeah it's probably half of the job yeah yeah on one once you know that and you master it then most of the time is version one approved because it's clear yeah but anyway this thing let you basically I would say interact with the computer meaning that the computer will send the sound into this thing this thing will accept the sound through a certain number of sources and it will distribute the sound on a sequence of the outboard gear that you see around so all the outboard gears basically connected to this this is like a transfer console but also an insert switcher so you can just enable disabled gear so it's it's let's say a patch Bay with instant inserts on yeah with the with the input and output stage as you can see as well and some extra with some beasts and some extra control like uh inverse channels inverse phase some more technical stuff like uh add some like an output fader if you want to do a fade out or fade in add a differential signal so you can enlarge the stereo field a mass a mess and cooling here is swappable for five and it's a it's it's built by Engineers for engineers and it's just clear some Engineers some master Engineers say that it has a certain sound [Music] to be perfectly honest with you I wouldn't even know how to compare that because you have to do a serious test you will have to record the sound through and then rebuild the same patch without the thing and read the card it's like it's trivial it sounds I don't know does it sound great I don't know but it's just so you did have a different machines back in before I had another one called the liaison Dangerous Music which is like only this part right without the inputs outputs and and the old stuff it's an interest switcher so in fact that one is supposed to be used with their version of this which is the dangerous Master but the whole bunch cost uh quite quite sensitive amount of money so did you notice any difference when operating between the mastering backbone from Mali and yes yes now I can pilot the gear that's a massive difference a lot of improvements because you can gain stage in between I can gain stage before and after the chain I could patch at the back to be able to monitor points in the chain I can select my inputs in real time so some inbox or converter I got two outputs at the same time feeding both converters so you can actually prints compare with the old system I had to use Apache Bay and then you have to go through a Jack Jack patch but now it's there unused just like and now again another Improvement this thing now it's all even so there's no fun in participating in the only like pristine cabling coming in and going out so you do that one keeps the noise floor super low super low yeah okay so that's again that's the central Hub really nice uh now that I have it I I could not uh not use it let's say right before these and right after these there are a couple of other pieces because this thing only has 80 inserts and as you can see there are more options but there is a logic behind you know how I built these and the logic is simple in mastering you normally do either equalizing or you do Dynamic processing of some kind or you do some other type of special processing yeah so and also my logic is very simple I could invest into very very very high quality gear that gives you that transparent sound if you go out of the box and back in but in the Box it's already really good so if I want to go out of the if I want to you know make the effort of like converting in and out and taking the time and there's got to be a good reason and a good reason for me at least for My Philosophy is either a very good precise precise sounding equalizer or something that has color makes sense and also one one little detail aside is compression because compression and unlock when it's clean it's still somehow with plugins but you know it's easier it's like this team I'm talking about command because this is the last bit in the chain before I go into the converts these are these are not to leveling compressor for master like and it's a Rolls-Royce it's like this does that kind of units that you run the sound through and no matter what sounds good always better the muscle a guy is a genius some of these guys exist I mean they design superior quality gear but anyway I was talking about logic so Equalization now because special process so what I did is Equalization is here yeah special processing color is here Dynamics this side that's simple this is my first stage of equalizing like I was saying this is a golly Porter grander style EQ the nice flag I can see yeah it's like that custom-made Italian flag there you go um the latest EQ that I got I used to have a crane song Ibis uh also cool EQ but somehow I was great for bass great for highs mid-range was a bit I don't know uh trumpety on my on my ear a bit that was something that didn't convince me okay for a period I had borrowed the um Elysia yeah music kill the big one yeah mid-rangement then I heard the mid-range of that now that had the Abby's uh it did like colors in a way that I don't necessarily like some people love the Ibis I do miss it now that I sold it but then again just because you like them all but I sold it to get this instead and this is much more precise you know this is stepped Ms encoder uh rain frequency range this is the giant knobs giant hand like it's cool and it's cool in front of you to use and I'm getting to know it more and more because I only have it for maybe a year or so okay this is not an EQ they use a lot it's like you don't do 4db with this already have to be there's a whole I don't know this it interacts with the music you know that's another thing about using computer or Hardware an EQ in the computer you have 2db there it sounds like that and EQ like this you have to be there the whole the rest of the spectrum changes it's like the old the relation of the instruments and the way they hold sound is it's different to us and so it takes a while to get to know it and what you know and this is the goalie yeah all right position which means that you have like uh basically it's four belts you can get filters at the edges but most is belt belt Typecast so very Surgical and well not searching a way that you can do really like a steep cut like George masonburg style or digital style of ways it's more like a tournament yeah and also the queue the cute thing is uh but somehow like I don't know uh different like it interacts with the music you really have to use your ears let's say all right but before this one I've got a classic box sandal type of EQ so if this is for the edges of the spectrum so I have it now hardwired because like I was like I'm always gonna filter you know like some yeah before most of the time and I always think again like if for some reason I need something before after I you know I I just use a plugin like if for some reason I have to filter after the year that I use a plug-in so it's all very versatile really it's like I mean this is a good cue for asking you real quick analog versus digital I know you for a long time I know you are like a huge advocate for analog gear when it's yeah and the budget I should say yeah but I also know you master in a hybrid fashion or sometimes you stayed in completely into the box that's what the music deserves exactly and for like what what what gets the job done in the best way it's really about that like and and I'm really honest with myself I'm like if I'm mastering something sometimes I do try to compare a master in the box or Master running through the gear and um sometimes what more than more than what you would think more than what you expect in the box is fine but it also makes sense because if you get something that needs color then you run it through the gear but if you get a production that has been already taken care of nicely and it sounds good and everything you don't really want to change it no the least you want to do to you the more transparent you want to be the best so that being the being in the box is just as transparent as you can get I'm going to ask you this real quick top two plugins that you use every day um um down one okay lip wing very versatile uh very very good sounding very but do you use that foreign built by Engineers for engineers so Paramount is sound quality ease of use and results okay that's it the other one is uh DMG DMG stuff I would mention Limitless they're limited yeah that thing is right you can see you can make a summer kind of a cycle the more and not that you don't have an aloe base it's a digital limiter it's like I mean I've got like one around five or six seven different maximizer limiters if you count them all they all give you something but at the end of the day DMG is the one I get to use the most and why because it's so versatile and so good that gets the job done all right so that's on the two plugins guys keeping up with the gear so you got these two guys in Chains in chain feeding the the the manly the manly has the various options here in order massive passive API 5500 doesn't need to be introduced so I got tubes in fact I got rock and roll number three Titans weird Dave heel design compressors very very high five there's like they're very classy soundings like a lot all of them like and also there are digital control so it's super easy to recall versatile you can use them for fast Peak limiting Global level loudness control you can use them for like and like getting the sound big or they work super well with techno like with tax on this they work really well okay to follow up with these are the converter so in and out so you're using two of those in and out and this one is only uh to digital uh Fatso my sort of secret uh secret thing well not so secret anymore it's gonna be on the internet now but this thing is not what you normally would see in a mastering Studio as a matter of fact I bought it for production because for drum boxing and the kind of stuff for tracking is uh it's cool but now lately fine tune it and and I use it for a specific reason which is a high high frequency control okay it it it it permits you to get a brighter sound without being really an annoying or piercing or hurting your ears and it's analog and it really has an empirical lab they know what they do another brand that they use so I mean distressor is a classic yeah this is my one of my thoughts so if you have to name two devices that I will keep uh domain yeah which ones ats-1 unlock tips simulator simulator [Music] um I think I think it's the second thing that I bought after the other one uh it's a state you know tape sounds great tape sounds absolutely great and they realize the device that gives you tape sound with mastering Quark that's all so that fits within that box where you're saying special yes special box you can use it for compression you can use it for a bite for saturation you can use it to get that warmth of the you can use it to get that extra bottom I got extra tops when you when you use the Ampeg card um color and plus it introduces a series 65 DB minus noise so we don't use it for clean Productions right but electronic music again and when you have the kind of warm house or or um or disco or ambient it's like you glues the base um compress compression Muscle X picks for itself the classic stereo optometrial compressor it's like butter and it's just Musical music or Musical musical if I if I you had to use a word to describe it musical you don't hear the compression going you hear something nice added to the music it's very cool mastering limiter this is to get the sound as loud as you can and and and get that extra level of compression to make it even louder before it reaches the computer so before it goes through the converters back in um I use it mostly for bunny mastering okay because for biomastering you don't have to go that extra step that you get in digital and you can get already nice and solid and and nicely analog loud before you're already on the analog so yeah so then the value Master would simply be the print after this into the convert and that's it okay um oh yeah I've got one other compressor here the footer yeah why because this is what you what you might expect by classic compressor this one can do it all and it's very musical again but it's very it's specialistic you know what I mean like I wouldn't do music or glue compression with that because I've got the masselect I wouldn't do um gentle very high five sound internal control because I got the Titans but when I need solid limiting um leveling uh just simply pumping that's there yeah I mean it's it's what is it is a VCA designer it's a VCA design with a very versatile scheme of controls you can do side chain control you can do time constant control right you can add a drop to Transformer you can engage or disengage the automatic attack release threshold race again everything's stacked feed forward and feedback you can see back high pass filter in the side chain RMS or Peak mode attacking this control non-linear flexible so you have this quicker quicker portion of the compression and smoothens out for drums especially is great and then the bypass and it's compact stereo it's full the footer knows what it does again you see that in a lot of Masters yeah so yeah indeed last but not least the Avalon again color tube I don't use this for compression I use it to just crank the sound through the tubes because I modified a lot of mastering guys modify their gear for reason or another some people like to modify it by default just to add this on that a couple of couple of pieces I modified this is modified different tubes they saturate more the louder and they get a solid and warmer mid-range compared to the tubes that you get in stock and since I changed the tubes I I never went back because then it makes sense to use it this is like I give you a quick example house track cleanly produced in the computer not clearly but cleanly so it's it's tight but it's somehow computer so it lacks a bit of extra engagement that you get with the three-dimensional added by The Tubes you master it in the Box a couple of steps before the end limiter you run it out into that get it back in 95 of the nonsense fret I guess the job done okay so that's why it's the first thing that I bought because it makes sense to go out of the computer plus the the Pacific stage here it's a classic you got the air got the base yeah it's past you know so if you boost the mid range it gets focused there it's it's common like it's a cool device cool stuff all right right Marco thank you so much for having you my pleasure and uh yeah until next time hopefully the next Studio hopefully the next Studio [Music]

Channel: RedStone Productions

Views: 5,999

Keywords: RedStone Productions, Pietro Rossi, Audio, Audio Engineering, Audio Production, Sound Engineering, Music Producer, Amsterdam, Gear Reviews, Outboard Gear, Signal Flow, Teaching, Production, Education, Recording Engineer, Recording Session, Mixing, Mastering, Speakers, Digital Audio Workstation, Apple, Tech Talk, Hands On, The Netherlands, Mastering Studio, Spaventi Studio, Mastering Audio, Kii Audio, Manley, Massive Passive, MarcoAntonio Spaventi, Manley Backbone, PMC

Id: mdqXX08R5JQ

Length: 42min 20sec (2540 seconds)

Published: Wed Jan 18 2023