The first audio engineer and music producer on Free2z?
I like to start with that question, just like my amazing girlfriend Melitza. I know that question might reveal that, if I’m not the first, at least I’ll know who shares my passion and profession in this community.
My name is Leonardo Castillo. I have a degree in Music Production, although I’ve leaned more towards mixing engineering. Due to the musical context of my city, everyone who starts in the world of music production has to learn and work in different stages of production. I’m no exception. I worked for several years as a recording engineer in various professional studios in my city. There, I was able to develop certain skills and learn recording techniques in a wide range of genres, from traditional Venezuelan music, orchestral music, rock bands, reggae, and even Latin music (salsa). Initially, I never imagined I would work with all these genres, as my main interests have always been rock/metal and hip-hop, to speak in general terms. Obviously, there are many subgenres, but that’s a longer story for this introduction.
I also worked for several years in live music, although I feel it’s not really my thing. I prefer to be part of the audience; it’s quite a stressful job. There are people for every job in the music industry. I prefer the calm that can exist in a studio, where certain details of the music, performance, and production are more appreciated.
I am a huge music fan, and my life revolves almost entirely around it. Although I started working in studios over 10 years ago, in the last two years, I have been able to improve significantly thanks to all the practice and experiments I have done with my girlfriend, the best singer I have ever worked with, undoubtedly the most versatile. Her voice, her talent as a musician beyond her voice, her talent as a music producer and composer have allowed me to constantly try new techniques, new tools, to better train my ears and progressively improve my skills.
I want to use this space from now on to document and share this journey, which, although not easy, is quite satisfying. Getting to where we are has required a lot of time and money investment, and it requires more due to the loss of a couple of essential pieces of equipment for the job (I have been able to manage for the moment thanks to some equipment that Meli very kindly lends me when she is not using them). I believe it is worth telling the good and the bad that happens along the way. I maintain the motivation and hope that we will always be able to move forward and achieve our goals as long as we keep working hard, stay disciplined, and love what we do.
I want to thank Yoditar for telling us about this platform and helping us get started here along with Roosevelt and Aura. Three people who have been key for Meli and me to be here sharing in this way with this community.
I invite you to listen my latest work with Melitza in her zpages and youtube channel.
I hope you can enjoy this story and join us on this journey. Any support is welcome. I hope to generate good conversations here; the world of music and its production is very interesting, broad, complex, and exciting.