Producer & Engineer Alphonse Faggiolo

MusicScroll.com

A PARTIAL LIST OF ALBUMS I HAVE WORKED ON

I left Sigma in 1991 to take a position at Disc Makers, the country's largest independent audio manufacturer. While there, I served as a Senior Account Manager on more than 5000 CD, Cassette, LP, and CD ROM releases, for artists such as the Insane Clown Posse, Jars of Clay, and Cash Money Records; re-located for one year to set up the Music Annex Company (a competitor that Disc Makers had purchased in Fremont, CA); and was the creator and manager of the well known and successful, Disc Makers Studio Partner Program.

During my time at Disc Makers, I opened a small project studio that cut the demos for the Bel Biv DeVoe songs, “Please Come Back” and “Lost In The Moment”, that appear on their Gold album, “Hootie Mack”. When Bel Biv DeVoe bought the two demos, I arranged the studio rate and scheduled time with Sigma Sound, and cut tracks during the first two studio sessions. I also served as the Mastering Engineer on the nationally distributed “Friday Morning Quarterback” project.

In 2006, as technology had dropped to a price point where competing with the multi-million dollar studios had finally become a reality, I decided to expand my studio by designing and constructing a separate studio and control room. The studio is a professionally soundproofed 22' x 10' recording space, with an attached 24' x 14' control room with many amenities. The studio is a commercial studio that is rented to bands, musicians, and recording labels of all size. The heart of the studio is a custom built quad core PC with 4GB of memory, running the latest Pro Tools update, with 4 Universal Audio UAD-1 cards containing some of the most advanced software plug-ins you'll ever hear (vintage processors such as the Neve 88RS channel strip, Fairchild 670 compressor, and the Pultec Pro equalizer. All 32 mic inputs are fed to the Ramsa DA-7 digital mixing console, with 32 individual channel inputs, and 32 channels of ADAT Lightpipe output; all interfaced to the M-Audio ProFire Lightbridge. There is a full range of microphones from Audix, Shure, Audio Technica, and Studio Projects.

Once the studio was in place, I launched Alfadog Music, which functions as a Production Company. I signed and developed a band called “The Fallen”, and recorded two albums with them, a total of 23 songs. The band has gotten airplay on major commercial radio stations, and their second album is now licensed to Bunim Murray, for the television shows Real World, Road Rules, Road Rules Extreme, and The Kardashians. In addition to my own projects, I developed a curriculum and taught recording classes.

One word of warning when you are shopping for a studio. In the past, I've been witness to some incredible changes and advancements, but nothing like what has taken place these past few years. Spectacular advances in computer technology have made equipment and resources, once only afforded by the million dollar studios, now available to the masses. For the musician, it is both a blessing and a curse. A blessing, in that recording has become much more affordable, as small project studios have sprung up like wild flowers as anyone with a minimal investment can hang up a shingle and call themselves a studio. A curse in that most of the people calling themselves studios have no understanding of what they are doing. Capturing sound to a hard drive is no great feat, anyone can learn the basics of using a program like Pro Tools. But operating software and knowing the art of recording, audio editing, mixing, and mastering, are worlds apart! Yes, we all can afford the "Formula 500 Race Car" now; but put a professional driver in the same car as an amateur, and the amateur is going to get their doors blown off!