#carmenrizzo

From my EP Romancia on Electrofone Music

Good friend and world roving Producer/Artist/DJ Carmen Rizzo had a lot to do with why Machine Head decided to relocated it’s studios to DTLA. His pitch on downtown was short, passionate, and very convincing (Stephen and Carmen go way back, while Carmen was engineering at legendary Westlake Studios Stephen would often be a visitor as a programmer on sessions). 

So, we decided to ask our new neighbor what gear is most important to him when it comes to making music.  It was no surprise that once again he kept his response short, passionate, and convincing. 

"Hard to say what my favorite piece of gear is at the moment.  I come from the world of the recording studio and have had my hands on so many boxes over the years.  However there are some perennials.  For recording my favorites are my Brett Averil API mic pre amps, a DBX 165a compressor and a URIE 545 Parametric EQ.  New isn't always improved and for that reason Brent Averill's devices are highly sought after and very faithful reproductions of legendary pieces of studio gear.  There are few components in the recording signal path, but their sonic signature varies greatly and can have a huge impact on the sound.  Usually the elements are microphone, microphone pre-amp and finally perhaps a compressor.  The quest for a particular sound brings many people to Brent's workshops in search of his exacting copies of legendary mic-pres and compressors, most notably Neve and API.  For keyboards, it seems to always change. I travel so much and it is all about portability!  Yes, I have a vintage Wurlitzer, but it's definitely not 'carry on' so,  at the moment  my traveling companion keyboards are the Novation Ultra or MiniNovation and NI Maschine, a software instrument made by Native Instruments."

Now, if you asked me what I would keep on a desert island, I'd have to think that one through, because I need to make music.  But, that said, if I was to be stranded on a desert island, today it’s my Mac book Pro and all the software I use to make music, i.e. Pro Tools & Abelton Live.