An Interview with David Gnozzi

0:00 David Gnozzi I can give you a fork, you can eat your meal with it or stab me in the back,

0:03 Luke F. Walton yeah that's right totally

0:05 David Gnozzi you know, it's always the user and how, what do you decide to do with it and, you know, yeah, that's human nature though.

0:15 Luke F. Walton what's good everybody Scoobert Doobert here for love music more so excited about this conversation with david from mix bus tv he's a platinum mix and mastering engineer and producer, and he's the host and CEO of the popular YouTube channel, Mixbus TV. Mixbus TV has trained like literally hundreds of thousands of people on how to be better mix engineers, interviewed some of my all-time heroes all over the industry.

0:40 Luke F. Walton It's amazing. He's an educator. He works tutoring, level up their skills in mixing and mastering. He is also working with a bunch of really great industry partners. We talked about one of which that he's helping develop.

0:52 Luke F. Walton of the software for and give feedback and he's just such a kind of industry nexus point for all that is gear and mixing and mastering and telling the story and the importance of details and caring about your actual art and your craft so it's a wonderful conversation and i'm so excited to share it with you before we do i'd like to thank our title sponsor district DistroKid.

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1:44 Luke F. Walton you'll support the pod a million plus artists rely on district it to get their music onto spotify apple music youtube tiktok title instagram and all of the major streaming services and one of my favorite things about it is i don't have to handle the accounting i'm able to send out song splits um for whoever's working on your stuff if you've got a really great mix master engineer or producer and you want to cut them in on some of those royalties so they feel really bought in it's a good thing to do

2:09 Luke F. Walton I say that not just as a mixing and not mastering, mixing slash producer guy, but I actually do believe in that. Creating community and District 8 helps you do that through the back end splits. Pretty cool. So go to distrkid.com slash VIP slash love music more to get started and I hope you enjoy this conversation with David. What's good, everybody? Welcome back to Love Music More.

2:43 Luke F. Walton I am Scoobert Doobert, and I am joined with David from MixBusTV. What's good,

2:49 David Gnozzi Hello.

2:49 Luke F. Walton David?

2:49 David Gnozzi Hello, everybody. Thank you for having me.

2:51 Luke F. Walton So excited to be talking with you. I'm just, there's so much that you do, and I'm so excited to unpack just the varied career that you've created. And I think it's so illustrative for kind of like what it looks like to be a modern mix engineer, master engineer. You can't just kind of do one thing anymore.

3:09 Luke F. Walton How did you end up taking on so much and kind of expanding your scope? Did it start from one place and move to the next or did you always kind of see yourself as somebody that was so multifaceted?

3:19 David Gnozzi no definitely definitely not it was a kind of a natural evolution that's how i like to see it and uh as for how i ended up doing this much is the main reason is because i can't stay still right

3:34 Luke F. Walton Cool.

3:34 David Gnozzi and you know the the achieving a goal it just opened the doors for the next one for me right

3:40 Luke F. Walton Yeah.

3:40 David Gnozzi I this is this is on all aspects of my life you know whether it's literally everything like whether it's my training whether it's work whether it's anything like bettering yourself like I see it that way I can't you know hold still in one place so when I think at least I achieved Phase one, I'm already thinking about, you know, phase two and three and four and five.

4:04 Luke F. Walton Cool, cool.

4:04 David Gnozzi And yeah, and I think the other reason is because I have a genuine passion for music, all aspects of it. And I'm beyond blessed and I remind this to myself every day that I am beyond blessed to be able to do this for a living. You know, like working with music for a living is a dream that many, many people have. It's not easy and I really feel blessed. So that...

4:32 David Gnozzi only makes me want to work harder you know which is maybe counterproductive because a lot of people think like oh when i am at this level i can relax no

4:41 Luke F. Walton Yeah.

4:41 David Gnozzi actually at least if you are like me that's like let's go let's see what we can you know where we can get and uh but yeah passion is the driving element for sure some sort of uh work ethic that i built that you know i just have to keep going and moving and like a body in motion stays in motion if you stop stuff it's you know that's the end of it plus

5:03 Luke F. Walton Yeah.

5:04 David Gnozzi this is a very very competitive field beyond because this is a shark tank how i call it so that's also that aspect i don't really think about it that much this is more a subject that comes into falls into conversation with other engineers and other people in the industry we talk about it how hard and competitive the field is it's not something that i actively think about it but here and there you know you gather together you're like there

5:28 David Gnozzi you know like we really have to stay on our toes because it's like you know it's very competitive so that's how and I actually started my career

5:39 David Gnozzi as a musician and i was a musician i was a professional musician assigned with a record label big like big major record label and then uh i didn't i didn't really like that lifestyle it's not the only reason that where i i really was the you know the horror stories that you hear with labels fucking

5:58 Luke F. Walton Yes.

5:58 David Gnozzi up you know artists that's what happened to me it happened to many you know i was a special or something but that definitely killed the passion for making music

6:07 David Gnozzi music as an artist right first person being on stage doing all that big issues with the labels you know it was it was such a mess like all the horror stories that you heard the corridors rumors that happened to me and uh it kind of opened my eyes when i was playing one time in this big festival in helsinki in finland and uh a band that was playing it was like mortis you know they've been doing it for forever

6:35 David Gnozzi and i talked to them about this like the level didn't pay anything we were like kind of like signed for three albums i'm like i don't want to give them the other two they

6:43 Luke F. Walton Hmm.

6:44 David Gnozzi don't even answer the phone anymore

6:45 Luke F. Walton Yeah.

6:45 David Gnozzi you know what happened and and i you know i thought that was happening to me only i was young and naive so to speak and they told me oh yeah you see those guys they you know that label doing it with that see those guys that label doing it with them too i was like what the fuck

7:01 Luke F. Walton Right,

7:01 David Gnozzi is going on like and they were they kind of yeah it was a it was a very candid conversation and in retrospect really opened my eyes and i was like damn and they were like yeah that's what they do that you know back then we're talking about like almost 20 years ago right so there

7:18 Luke F. Walton yeah,

7:18 David Gnozzi wasn't different the

7:19 Luke F. Walton industry,

7:19 David Gnozzi information that is that is available right

7:21 Luke F. Walton right.

7:21 David Gnozzi now right now there's many people kind of you know exposing so to speak the bad deals and what labels do that now everybody does okay you gotta watch your back but when i signed we didn't know better you know and we side so not that we had any pulling power i call it Uh that

7:39 Luke F. Walton -huh.

7:39 David Gnozzi was the contract if you want it this is it otherwise you walk there's another 10 people right so you have no pulling power because you're nobody probably if i knew i wouldn't have because the second album for example

7:51 David Gnozzi I managed to escape that contract even though I sacrificed my first album not that was anything special but still he signed with an independent after and I released my second album with the independent label so probably if I knew I would have gone that route first you

8:07 Luke F. Walton right away well and

8:08 David Gnozzi know

8:08 Luke F. Walton that's an interesting point about like the passion is like this candle and you want to protect it to like obviously you have to take risks you have to put yourself out there but at the same time if you do the wrong deal or the wrong partner those one-way partnerships that can sink a career it can kill a band break you up there there's there's cliffs on either side you know

8:28 David Gnozzi Yeah, and we've seen it happening many, many times,

8:31 Luke F. Walton Yeah.

8:31 David Gnozzi you know, and artists being, you know, buried or just losing, you know, the drive because

8:39 Luke F. Walton Yeah.

8:39 David Gnozzi they really make it hard for you, you know, I mean, if you're a professional musician, now it doesn't happen anymore, but 20 years ago, if you're a professional musician, that's your livelihood. If they don't pay you, what are you going to do?

8:51 David Gnozzi yeah you can't you cannot do it you're like like unless you are you know you already have money to begin with but you know yeah and so from there i was kind of i already kind of had a plan b without realizing it because i already i was already producing and mixing for my band for other bands um

9:11 Luke F. Walton cool and those records that you were putting out with the label were you producing and mixing those as well

9:17 David Gnozzi unfortunately yes and that's why i tell people don't do it yeah

9:20 Luke F. Walton Really? Really? Tell me more about that.

9:22 David Gnozzi i i tell people don't do it don't do it don't do your music all on your own like

9:28 Luke F. Walton Yeah.

9:28 David Gnozzi do it everything yourself because i've done it and if i was to go back i wouldn't do it and the main reason is because besides the fact that is a massive amount of work which is really hard for anybody i don't care who you are it

9:45 Luke F. Walton yes

9:45 David Gnozzi is a massive even if you succeed there's a massive amount of work that takes so much out of you especially the second album was absolutely brutal for me just yeah throw me in a spiral it just you

9:59 Luke F. Walton yes

9:59 David Gnozzi know burn me out really

10:01 Luke F. Walton yeah well the second album trope of like you have your whole life to make your first album and then you have a year to make We're going to make the second.

10:06 David Gnozzi yeah exactly so that was absolutely brutal right

10:10 Luke F. Walton Yeah,

10:10 David Gnozzi and

10:10 Luke F. Walton yeah.

10:11 David Gnozzi then you learn from the mistake from the first one so you don't want to make them again and

10:15 Luke F. Walton Yep.

10:15 David Gnozzi so there's a whole different you know layer of difficulties for the second and besides that just the amount the sheer amount of work it's the main reason that i

10:27 David Gnozzi later on realize is because you are so emotionally attacked besides even let's assume you have the skills which back then i really didn't have the skills because i was you know primarily a musician you

10:41 Luke F. Walton Yes.

10:41 David Gnozzi know i wasn't bad otherwise i wouldn't end up being an engineer professionally but you know this is a a craft that takes years to learn like decades so the main reason you

10:54 David Gnozzi is because you are so emotionally attached to your creation to your song is your baby it comes from if you are a real artist you put your heart and soul in it right and so you are so emotionally attached you're so worried about

11:13 David Gnozzi fucking it up and you want it to be sounding the best you can and you question every single move that if you were to work on somebody else's music you wouldn't you will be confident yeah that's that's what we're doing here and if it's your baby you question everything and so it takes longer most likely you make you know bad choices because you're questioning yourself all the time time

11:38 Luke F. Walton True.

11:39 David Gnozzi things don't flow that well together and it just it's a grueling grueling process and people think are like oh you don't want people to mix their own music because it takes business away from me I'm good like you know I don't need that this is a really a heartfelt advice because I made the same mistakes and so when I see people doing that it just don't do it because I've been there I was you

12:05 David Gnozzi right in that spot and if I could go back I wouldn't do it and so yeah Anyway, I was already mixing and mastering and producing back then when I was in a band, but I wasn't really advertising myself for those services. I was doing it like either for friends or for collaboration with the bands,

12:23 Luke F. Walton Yeah,

12:23 David Gnozzi right? I

12:24 Luke F. Walton yeah.

12:24 David Gnozzi did big remixes for Lady Tron, for Felix the Outscad and right off the bat.

12:30 Luke F. Walton Cool.

12:30 David Gnozzi So I was lucky

12:30 Luke F. Walton Yes.

12:31 David Gnozzi in that regard.

12:31 Luke F. Walton Yes.

12:32 David Gnozzi But I wasn't really advertising because back in the years. it wasn't cool if you were also doing that and being a musician right

12:41 Luke F. Walton Interesting.

12:42 David Gnozzi it wasn't

12:42 Luke F. Walton Yeah.

12:42 David Gnozzi today is

12:43 Luke F. Walton Yeah.

12:43 David Gnozzi cool like every everybody does it with a laptop and it's considered cool back then the other musicians would look at you and ask you are you broke you can't afford somebody to do it for you like a you know it wasn't really it really wasn't cool at all so i was kind of keeping it you know down low and then when the whole thing with the label went down

13:04 David Gnozzi down and we yes we released a second album and it was a lot better but at that point the passion was like gone I was just going through the motion as a musician and

13:14 Luke F. Walton Yeah.

13:15 David Gnozzi so I was like you know what at the end of the day kind of they kill the passion for that I

13:20 Luke F. Walton Mm hmm.

13:21 David Gnozzi never really like the life on the road I'm

13:23 Luke F. Walton Mm hmm. Yeah.

13:23 David Gnozzi not a party person so even all the the side activities of a rock metal band I wasn't interested I don't drink I don't do drugs I don't do nothing I want to go to sleep when I'm tired yeah you know I was like I'm kind of feel like a fish out of the water while I'm really enjoying the studio life

13:45 Luke F. Walton Yeah.

13:45 David Gnozzi It's a funny bit when I was nine years old, I was given my first guitar as a gift for my birthday and

13:51 Luke F. Walton Cool.

13:52 David Gnozzi I always kind of sucked at playing guitar. but i was i was spending much time much of the time letting a chord ring and then playing with the pedals so that should have told me already i was more

14:05 Luke F. Walton This

14:05 David Gnozzi inclined

14:05 Luke F. Walton is your path.

14:06 David Gnozzi to tweak knobs than actually play and that's what happened that was the natural evolution at the beginning i was recording a lot i was recording and mixing for the first probably 10 years to give people a perspective how long does it take to even touch mastering right after

14:21 Luke F. Walton Yeah, right.

14:22 David Gnozzi that I could be in a lucky and blessed position again not to have to record more I still do it for like selected project I literally just recorded yesterday I'm

14:33 Luke F. Walton Nice.

14:34 David Gnozzi working on Monty Pitman Madonna's guitarist and now in Ministry guitarist for his album and we just tracked guitar yesterday but it's only for projects that are like selected otherwise I don't do it anymore I stopped recording and I could just do mixing and mastering and that was it. And then the channel happened at some point in

14:56 Luke F. Walton Mm-hmm.

14:57 David Gnozzi this timeline and

14:58 Luke F. Walton Sweet.

14:58 David Gnozzi it was almost an accident.

15:00 Luke F. Walton Love that. I love that. And I love the like, yeah, I'm going to I'm going to learn this and I'm going to find the next thing. Just like you're saying, you're going to hit each of those levels and keep setting goals and keep meeting goals and just keep putting in the work day after day after day.

15:15 Luke F. Walton One thing that I'm really interested in is like rituals or structure or routines. Like, how do you how do you approach your day?

15:24 David Gnozzi I am 100% a routine guy.

15:27 Luke F. Walton Cool.

15:28 David Gnozzi I am a Virgo all my things needs to be in the same spot if you put him like five inches on the left I won't find it you know it's

15:38 Luke F. Walton That's

15:38 David Gnozzi like

15:39 Luke F. Walton so

15:39 David Gnozzi it

15:39 Luke F. Walton good.

15:39 David Gnozzi can be like yeah it can be a palm away but if it's not where I know that it's supposed to be I don't see it That's how my brain operates, right? I'm very scheduled, very disciplined. I

15:50 Luke F. Walton Yep.

15:51 David Gnozzi have my routine. It's also a matter of time management, right?

15:54 Luke F. Walton Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

15:54 David Gnozzi Because between the mixes, the channel and the networking,

15:59 Luke F. Walton Totally.

15:59 David Gnozzi the talking to the companies, talking to the clients, talking like having somewhat a social life.

16:06 Luke F. Walton Yeah.

16:06 David Gnozzi And that's just because of my fiance, otherwise I wouldn't have any.

16:11 Luke F. Walton Yeah.

16:13 David Gnozzi just as a matter of time management you cannot not be organized otherwise

16:17 Luke F. Walton Yeah.

16:18 David Gnozzi you know you're you're falling behind with deadlines and so for me it's pretty simple you know just wake up 6 a.m go to the gym get that out of the way no matter what happens like snow rain bone breaking pain no matter what happened that is gonna happen and then after that is just a work day you

16:40 David Gnozzi which can be anything depending you know that's a good thing that's that's one thing that is um on one hand hard but on the other hand it it's kind of um very interesting because maybe today or this week I'm working on just mixing and mastering only or

17:00 Luke F. Walton Mm-hmm.

17:00 David Gnozzi maybe like one day is going to be videos we

17:04 Luke F. Walton Okay.

17:04 David Gnozzi are whether we are shooting or whether we are editing or whether we are you know setting up the stage for the next unit that comes in the studio we need to film it so

17:10 David Gnozzi unit that comes in the studio we need to film it so

17:13 Luke F. Walton Yeah.

17:13 David Gnozzi that's kind of my my work day is almost never the same that's what keeps it very you know interesting and fresh even if let's say it never happened but even if let's say i'm getting a little comfortable and stale just mixing and then because maybe i did the same genre for like a month and a half never get bored because i have two days in which i have to film videos and then when i go When I go back to the mixing,

17:39 David Gnozzi I'm still like. you know fresh and passionate about it because i did something else for a couple of days so that that's that makes it a lot easier yes

17:46 Luke F. Walton That's a great point. So you've got like this routine that you color within, but the routine is kind of that set box that you don't even have to make decisions about that. You're going to go from here to here so you can focus your decisions on the actual creative stuff.

18:00 David Gnozzi yes and everything is uh it's kind of like every setup that i have whether it's the mixing or anything else it's kind of a race car you know you can even see everything is an arm reach you know so i

18:13 Luke F. Walton Totally.

18:13 David Gnozzi don't have to move that much you know so everything is there whatever i need to do can be done in one second i always say like measure twice and cut once right so i spent so much time setting everything up so the work the actual work it's easy you don't you don't have to think about the technical aspects of it and it's just pure inspiration or art what it what it flows and

18:38 Luke F. Walton Cool.

18:38 David Gnozzi that that really helps and i think this is something that a lot of people especially who does this at home not professionally or not yet professionally they kind of overlook you know the preparation like preparing your your environment so that you can function 100 potential you know and express that

18:59 Luke F. Walton Yes. That's a great point. i i actually would love to ask you about how you have things patched because i'm i'm seeing you know you got the poltec back there you got like how how are you um sending audio in and out of the analog to the digital world and vice versa in a way that you don't have to like take a whole bunch of time and sort all your ins and your outs and your buses you just like have it have it really good

19:24 David Gnozzi First of all, I can give you a panorama.

19:26 Luke F. Walton yeah

19:26 David Gnozzi I just put this rack now because I have some. so much stuff i don't fit anymore there's

19:30 Luke F. Walton Right.

19:31 David Gnozzi the desk that there and then there's the other side rack here so there's a lot of stuff here i have about right now 75 channels of analog which is more than most of us

19:44 Luke F. Walton Totally.

19:44 David Gnozzi at this point so

19:45 Luke F. Walton Absolutely.

19:45 David Gnozzi um It's on one hand very easy and on one hand very complicated, meaning I have two rigs, one for mixing and one for mastering. What

19:57 Luke F. Walton Okay.

19:57 David Gnozzi changes is the converters, right? So the mastering converters are dangerous, the mixing rig, so all the routing of the mixing rig on the other insert is more to ADB. And thanks to that... Plus, one of the latest acquisitions is the Wolf Pro Patch.

20:18 Luke F. Walton I

20:18 David Gnozzi it's

20:18 Luke F. Walton don't. like i'm familiar with the wolf from

20:19 David Gnozzi no because it's it's that orange thing right

20:22 Luke F. Walton okay

20:22 David Gnozzi there because

20:23 Luke F. Walton cool

20:23 David Gnozzi it is out but officially it's not out uh this is i think the first one that is literally the jar has just brought it to me because i am also helping them out developing the software and putting the the word out on the channel for the patch fully analog actually this is why this patch is the best there is in the world you because it's got over 2,000 relays in there.

20:47 David Gnozzi So the connections are the equivalent of a straight wire. There's no degradation, no color, no headroom, meaning the headroom is endless and no crosstalk, no fans, nothing. It's just a crazy project that... they didn't even know if they could do

21:05 Luke F. Walton Totally!

21:05 David Gnozzi it they kind of

21:07 Luke F. Walton Sounds

21:07 David Gnozzi yeah

21:07 Luke F. Walton like magic.

21:07 David Gnozzi they kind of did like jared told me the story was like well that you know to do a relay-based patch bay oh by the way he's on 192 channels in one unit rack right

21:17 Luke F. Walton Yes.

21:17 David Gnozzi so he yeah he told me like oh that's the crazy thought right and then they go like okay it's crazy but could we do it and so they tried and they succeeded and so it became a product with wall volume and everything

21:32 David Gnozzi so that allows me as you can see there's no cables at all so the old patch bay when you patch with the cables that's gone so everything all the converters and all the hardware is patched to the patch bay with

21:48 Luke F. Walton Amazing.

21:48 David Gnozzi d25 cables and what allows you to do because it's digitally controlled is whatever i want to patch here i just click on it and drag it on the

21:58 Luke F. Walton Cool. That's

21:59 David Gnozzi Yeah.

21:59 Luke F. Walton great.

22:00 David Gnozzi I can tell you one thing. I would never mix in any other setup right now. Once you have it, you go like, oh, dude, there's no way I will sell everything before selling that.

22:13 Luke F. Walton Yeah.

22:13 David Gnozzi You know, it's crazy. On top of that, you can save the session as just a preset and you can recall it. So I don't have to write down anything. I don't have to nothing. I don't have to remember what I use on that.

22:29 David Gnozzi If I, on a vocal I use, I don't know, the dictator, the AIGS and the pool tech, I don't need to remember it. I will just recall it and just you hear the relays go and just patch it on its own.

22:44 Luke F. Walton Cool.

22:45 David Gnozzi So that's amazing and it really changed my workflow for the better. I cannot praise it enough. and i'm not paid so it's really like and on top of that of course in order to do this you need to have enough physical ios and that's what the mode to abb comes into play which is also amazing because all the there i have four interfaces right they

23:10 Luke F. Walton Mm-hmm.

23:11 David Gnozzi are all connected with one single cable cat5 via ethernet so they can communicate with each other and then the dangerous ad and ea are Switch to another.

23:23 David Gnozzi a preset of a patch so all the machines that i use for mastering switch with one click to that rig and

23:29 Luke F. Walton Amazing.

23:30 David Gnozzi you're good to go you change the clock and you're ready so yeah i mean of course it's it's not a cheap setup

23:36 Luke F. Walton No,

23:36 David Gnozzi right

23:36 Luke F. Walton yeah, for sure. This is spaceship.

23:38 David Gnozzi that's for sure because just just you know getting a 96 channels of high quality converters is expensive to begin with the wolf batch is uh i think it's around 89k just that one which of course is not something that a home studio would buy or need but

23:56 Luke F. Walton Mm for-hmm.

23:56 David Gnozzi a professional setup like this it's absolutely priceless what it gives you it gives you time which is the most precious thing that we have you

24:06 Luke F. Walton Yes.

24:07 David Gnozzi know

24:07 Luke F. Walton And

24:08 David Gnozzi So,

24:08 Luke F. Walton I feel like

24:08 David Gnozzi yes,

24:08 Luke F. Walton it also would unlock using the gear more. You know, like I talk to a lot of pros that it's just such a hassle to patch in or they just end up doing more in the box when they would have gotten an extra 10% if they would have just spent the time and done it. This kind of gives you best of both.

24:26 David Gnozzi not only that, but that combined that with digital recall gear now. And of course, West Audio was the pioneer, the one that...

24:35 David Gnozzi I want to say they weren't the first one in the history of doing digitally controlled analog because, you know, I think Neve had it in the 80s, but what perfected it and how they implemented it and how they then released it to the masses for a... relatively affordable price it's mind-blowing and

24:59 Luke F. Walton Yeah.

25:00 David Gnozzi after after west audio did it all you know many other companies followed because we all saw that that was the future well i have everything west audio makes the new car nabby i just got

25:13 Luke F. Walton Very

25:14 David Gnozzi it

25:14 Luke F. Walton cool.

25:14 David Gnozzi weeks ago it's also digitally controlled there's many companies that i cannot name but they are working on it because now everybody's gonna jump at some point because of course you know that's the future and

25:25 Luke F. Walton Yes.

25:26 David Gnozzi besides very few units like for example my distressors and my fat cells i have like a lot of those because i love you know empirical lab everything else it's a switch in my studio i don't like pots because of right so everything is up everything is an elmo switch everything is recallable and uh so yeah that makes life a lot easier and

25:49 Luke F. Walton Yes.

25:50 David Gnozzi it's funny because when people say oh my god how long does it take to recall a session two seconds like

25:55 Luke F. Walton Yes.

25:55 David Gnozzi highly you know

25:57 Luke F. Walton Amazing.

25:57 David Gnozzi press the patch and you know and that's the other thing i have so much hardware right now that many times i don't i will sound like a spoiled brat right now but many times i don't even I have to change the settings that much. So if one of my distressor doesn't work, I go to the next one.

26:18 Luke F. Walton Yeah.

26:18 David Gnozzi which is set up like slightly different and i usually use it that way

26:21 Luke F. Walton Cool.

26:21 David Gnozzi right if

26:21 Luke F. Walton Right.

26:22 David Gnozzi that doesn't work i would just jump on an 1176 or i have four of them so one is you know what i mean

26:28 Luke F. Walton Exactly.

26:28 David Gnozzi it's like when

26:29 Luke F. Walton I totally know what you mean.

26:30 David Gnozzi you when you do this for a while you you have certain machine set to a sweet spot For and

26:35 Luke F. Walton sure.

26:35 David Gnozzi you know where they work on what they work and you just don't even touch the settings that much

26:40 Luke F. Walton Exactly. And that makes total sense where, yeah, if you just know I'm going to put. Input. Input into this thing and output is going to be affected this kind of delta. It makes total sense. It's like as long as you know that gear, every gear is a little bit different, especially in this analog world.

26:52 Luke F. Walton The other thing that I find really interesting is people online are starting to catch on that music sounds better now. And

26:58 David Gnozzi Yeah.

26:59 Luke F. Walton I swear this is a big reason why. It's the synthesis of the digital and the analog at the same time rather than one or the other that gives you the best of those both worlds. It puts more power in your decision making. as an engineer and you're able to follow your ear more fluidly without getting caught up in the problems of each world just kind of individually.

27:20 David Gnozzi Yes, because let's face it. full analog studios were an absolute nightmare i

27:25 Luke F. Walton Yeah, right. People forget

27:27 David Gnozzi hated that

27:28 Luke F. Walton about that. Totally.

27:29 David Gnozzi i hate i absolutely hated patch bays although first of all i can't i i don't like messy so all the cables were just putting me in a bad mood the second i walked in a studio which sounds stupid but it's not because we live in studio so what we see affects how we feel you know if you're entering a pretty any studio is already

27:49 Luke F. Walton Uh

27:49 David Gnozzi oh wow

27:49 Luke F. Walton -huh.

27:49 David Gnozzi i'm excited you

27:50 Luke F. Walton Right.

27:51 David Gnozzi know and

27:51 Luke F. Walton Right.

27:51 David Gnozzi if you see and if i personally see like a mess of a spaghetti cable things it's oh my god i can't stand that you know so analog studios were really hard to operate not even considering tape i didn't see tape that much i see i saw tape the first two years that i was started doing this because the first studio that i worked at also had tape and it was you

28:16 David Gnozzi It was right around the time in which we were switching from tape to use the computer as a tape,

28:21 Luke F. Walton Yeah.

28:21 David Gnozzi leaving the tape behind, right? But there were still a couple of projects doing on tape and I'm like, fuck that.

28:31 Luke F. Walton I've got some big news, everybody. My vinyl record is out. We didn't make a ton of these, so these guys are going to sell out, and I would love for you to get your hands on one of them because they're so dope. They're so dope. And it comes with a whole bunch of liner notes and pictures and special stuff, the things that really went into making this record.

28:50 Luke F. Walton And I want you to get your hands on it. Click the link in the show notes or the bio or wherever you're watching this to pick up your copy. you know they're gonna sell out we really did not make very many of these and i want you to have it it's it's like a collector's item so thank you thank you for supporting my music and i can't wait for you to hear it actually on physical vinyl enjoy the rest of the episode

29:12 David Gnozzi So definitely, yeah,

29:13 Luke F. Walton Oh

29:13 David Gnozzi it was hard. You need like a couple of people to run the whole place. Otherwise, it was like so much time was wasted. You know, there were many problems that we don't have today. Conversion, 80 ADA conversion 30 years ago, which. was the 90s

29:32 Luke F. Walton Could

29:32 David Gnozzi it

29:32 Luke F. Walton Oz

29:32 David Gnozzi was

29:32 Luke F. Walton there describe

29:32 David Gnozzi so expensive

29:33 Luke F. Walton that for people that might not understand? We're talking moving in between, in and out of analog and digital.

29:40 David Gnozzi yeah it was so expensive it wasn't sounding that great unless you had the top of the top of the top while today the middle of the road converters sound 10 times better than what we had 20 years ago for a third a fifth of the price right so we live in an amazing time to make music And of course, it's always the difference between the top of the line, you know, and but

30:03 Luke F. Walton For sure.

30:03 David Gnozzi you don't need that unless you are a professional and you're fighting for, you know, the last 10 percent or

30:10 Luke F. Walton Yeah.

30:11 David Gnozzi you do this for a living,

30:12 Luke F. Walton Yeah.

30:12 David Gnozzi which, of course, you want the best you can. Plus, we had noise floor. We had so many things. And even today we have, you know, companies that kind of revisit.

30:23 David Gnozzi the the old circuits whether it's a fair child with a 1176 and we have amazing stuff let alone the digital control but we lower the noise floor so much we improved so many things so even even if i still believe that the 60s probably 70s were the the peak of the euphonic of the analog world because we still use LA2A, 67s,

30:52 Luke F. Walton Sort

30:52 David Gnozzi you know,

30:52 Luke F. Walton of.

30:52 David Gnozzi Fairchilds. We still use the units that were like built back then or the design that were built. We definitely improved in everything around them and so today we really have amazing amazing gear.

31:05 Luke F. Walton Yes. Well, those those types of circuits are just so iconic. They're like instruments unto themselves, a fair child or 1176 like that they have just made such a stamp on pretty much every genre of popular music that it. It sounds weird without him, you know, if you

31:24 David Gnozzi yeah

31:24 Luke F. Walton don't

31:24 David Gnozzi they they really they shaped the sound of music like like ssl consoles you know when ssl consoles came to the market they changed everything they changed the way we mix they changed how we became so much more precise of what we could do we could do so much more because of the routing that we have we had for the first time dynamics on every channel you

31:49 Luke F. Walton Yeah, right.

31:50 David Gnozzi know it was it was computers and ditch and recall so we could do things that you know gear definitely shaped the music 100% not just instrument like the MPC or the electric guitar versus you know the other whatever else but yeah the tools definitely shaped the the music and I think those years we reached a peak that has never been surpassed

32:18 David Gnozzi that's proof that we still use pool text we still use the those design today because they were you know the more euphoric it's not just a matter of familiarity I always say that right we

32:30 Luke F. Walton Yeah.

32:31 David Gnozzi all grew up with the with the music from the past because that's what happens to every generation right there's a component that is familiarity we love that song we love those artists we tend to like like things that sounds like it right

32:46 Luke F. Walton Right,

32:47 David Gnozzi to

32:47 Luke F. Walton right.

32:47 David Gnozzi certain extent and that's what they were using back then and so they it transferred generation and generation with the obviously with the differences of the genres changing and the technology changing but we never surpassed you know we improved on it but the core studio horses are still the same once

33:09 Luke F. Walton Yeah.

33:10 David Gnozzi in

33:10 Luke F. Walton Yeah.

33:11 David Gnozzi a while something comes out to the market that is like this is an instant new classic right

33:15 Luke F. Walton I want to talk about those. I want to talk about those. How do you feel about some of the modern instances of like a like a soothe or a goal fosters, like the things that are trying to pull out resonances? What do you do you use them? What do you think about them? Where do you place them in terms of kind of new innovations?

33:31 David Gnozzi so I think that's where the plugins really shine I think I've always said this, plugins for me are great for effects, there's

33:40 Luke F. Walton Okay.

33:40 David Gnozzi some crazy effects that simply do not exist in the analog world,

33:44 Luke F. Walton Right.

33:44 David Gnozzi even in the digital hardware world, and things that analog cannot do, you know, like soothe and spiff and separation and some kind of like... special processing those are the fields in which plugins are just like for example another silly thing right now they're they're starting to make analog brick wall limiters brick

34:07 Luke F. Walton Okay.

34:07 David Gnozzi wall limiters were started with in digital they started as a digital product for a reason and

34:13 Luke F. Walton Yeah.

34:13 David Gnozzi i have to still hear an analog brick wall limiter that beats plugins it's just you know if there there are some things where analog is trying to catch up to plugins and probably they never will and it goes the same you know the other way around

34:14 David Gnozzi i have to still hear an analog brick wall limiter that beats plugins it's just you know if

34:31 David Gnozzi Our own plugins try to catch up with our own all the time,

34:33 Luke F. Walton Yeah.

34:33 David Gnozzi but there's

34:34 Luke F. Walton Yeah.

34:34 David Gnozzi still something missing. So those special processing that you mentioned, I think they are absolutely great. I mean, I love Spiff. I literally just made a short video not long ago about it and I use them often,

34:48 Luke F. Walton Yeah.

34:48 David Gnozzi not all the time. And

34:49 Luke F. Walton Nice.

34:50 David Gnozzi that's where the problem for me is.

34:52 Luke F. Walton Yeah. Yeah.

34:52 David Gnozzi So when a new technology or a new plugin comes out. And it's great like they are, people tend to overuse them.

35:02 Luke F. Walton Totally.

35:02 David Gnozzi People tend to, because there's a core issue, if you ask me, which is unfortunately the past couple of generations seem to have lost a little bit of the idea that you have to work hard for things

35:19 Luke F. Walton yeah

35:19 David Gnozzi right

35:20 Luke F. Walton totally totally

35:20 David Gnozzi and

35:21 Luke F. Walton i'm so i'm guilty

35:21 David Gnozzi there's always

35:22 Luke F. Walton to be fair i'm guilty of some of this

35:24 David Gnozzi i mean all hard because we all are to some extent but i think people at least in my generation or little older they

35:31 Luke F. Walton yeah

35:32 David Gnozzi kind of we kind of catch ourselves like hold on a second you know because we learned from experience that usually nothing the comes easy is that you know crazy like or

35:45 Luke F. Walton Yeah.

35:45 David Gnozzi there's a better way so the point is a lot of people it seems to want to find a shortcut find the golden key the golden plug in the one thing that from that moment on you don't have to worry about anything else because you're always going to use that one music is not like

36:01 Luke F. Walton Yes.

36:01 David Gnozzi that there's not a secret formula there's not a secret chain there's not a secret settings or a secret plug-in that will you know solve all your problems right and people really wants to believe this so they go in with a bias oh this sounds amazing and Yeah, maybe it does but

36:18 Luke F. Walton yeah, right

36:19 David Gnozzi it doesn't work for everything it doesn't it's not meant to be used as a default for everything and i say this because a lot of uh especially the spectral processor what happens is if you really listen to it and you have

36:33 David Gnozzi the trained ears enough training you can hear some artifacts right and it depends of course on the context on the material on how you use it oversampling definitely helps reducing those artifacts but they are there i mean it's and there's no doubt So if you use them on a couple of tracks out of a 60 tracks mix, it's not a big deal. But if you're stacking 40 of them,

37:01 Luke F. Walton Yeah.

37:01 David Gnozzi it's going to be a problem.

37:03 Luke F. Walton Right.

37:03 David Gnozzi It's going to be a chirping concert, right?

37:05 Luke F. Walton Huh.

37:05 David Gnozzi And so I always say like as a general rule. And that's just my opinion. The most simple processing that you can use, if that works, stick with it.

37:17 Luke F. Walton Hmm.

37:18 David Gnozzi Don't open weird shit just because it's trendy,

37:21 Luke F. Walton Yeah.

37:21 David Gnozzi right?

37:21 Luke F. Walton Yeah.

37:22 David Gnozzi If you can't get away with turning down the fader for that moment, do that. Don't try to open a plug-in that does it for you by introducing some weird freaking thing and then that is going to cause two other problems on another level. Don't

37:38 Luke F. Walton Yes.

37:38 David Gnozzi do it. So try to keep things as simple as possible and only break out those crazy tools if you don't have any other choice. Because the more complicated things and the more processing you apply to things, the more unnatural they will sound. sound when we had you know songs made with 12 tracks that wasn't a problem but one of my latest mixes was 241

38:01 Luke F. Walton Whoa!

38:02 David Gnozzi so

38:02 Luke F. Walton Oh man!

38:04 David Gnozzi you know you have you have a lot of uh chances to

38:08 Luke F. Walton Yeah.

38:08 David Gnozzi fuck up

38:09 Luke F. Walton Yeah, right.

38:10 David Gnozzi you know so

38:11 Luke F. Walton Right.

38:11 David Gnozzi if you add if you start and that's the other it takes me to another you know common internet thing oh it doesn't matter it's a detail nobody's gonna hear it well try to hear try to skip details for 200 tracks guess

38:24 Luke F. Walton Yeah.

38:24 David Gnozzi what happens sounds the mix is gonna sound like shit because all the little things that you think are not important when you start multiplying them for For tens of tracks, yeah, they will add up and make the difference, you know, and then you guess why your mix doesn't sound like a commercial release.

38:42 Luke F. Walton Hmm.

38:42 David Gnozzi Well, details is one.

38:44 Luke F. Walton Yeah.

38:44 David Gnozzi Those details that you think don't matter, those are the things that at the end add up and make the difference.

38:51 Luke F. Walton That's really well said. And it also, it brings me back to what you were talking about with noise floor, because that's one of the ultimate when you're way deep in the mix, and maybe you've used too much process and you're like, where is that noise coming from? Or why is the stereo picture so bizarre? It's because there's just a weird thing going on on sub track 350. Yeah, yeah, it's a good

39:13 David Gnozzi it's

39:13 Luke F. Walton point.

39:13 David Gnozzi very common like you know especially big track count mixes You really, in fact, that's something that I talked about it before, how training, like my strength training in the gym helps me so much with the mixing because it's such a completely different type of stress and

39:35 Luke F. Walton Okay. Okay.

39:36 David Gnozzi concentration, right? The studio work, especially with high track count mixes, but anything, because at the end of the day, our job is. is detail i don't

39:46 Luke F. Walton Yes.

39:47 David Gnozzi understand how anybody can go into audio and say details don't matter or like people don't hear the difference like why the fuck are you even in the field at all because that's what we do you know we use a scalpel we don't use an axe so

39:59 Luke F. Walton Yes.

39:59 David Gnozzi details is all we have requires a level of concentration just for listening those details and hours on end that at the end of a big session i'm drained like and i sat on the chair all day and

40:13 Luke F. Walton Yeah.

40:13 David Gnozzi i feel tired as hell and so the the physical stress on the weight training is somehow and i will never understand this because if i was to i would have after 30 years it's for some reason it tires my body and recharges my mind because it's it's more like at the point brute force that although in the gym you do need some kind of concentration because you don't want to crash

40:41 David Gnozzi yourself with like 350 pound when you squat it's a different kind of focus it's more like letting it out and you know uh it's it's a stress relief that somehow tires my body my recharges my mind in fact it's not uncommon that after a long session usually late night you go to bed wake up go to the gym come back listen actually while i'm in the gym I think the mix yesterday,

41:09 David Gnozzi there was something off and I was like, huh, I know how to do that now.

41:12 Luke F. Walton Yeah.

41:13 David Gnozzi I know how to fix the problem.

41:14 Luke F. Walton Yeah.

41:14 David Gnozzi So just changing environment and changing scenario helps a lot. And it doesn't have to be training. It could be like, you know, going for a ride or whatever.

41:23 Luke F. Walton Yes. And those are some of the things that I think about a lot when people bring up the whole AI conversation, AI mixing engineers or AI tools, they're missing the point of the embodied truth.

41:33 Luke F. Walton of you're you're changing your physical location you're molding out a problem for a long time it's not a linear reasoning model it is something way more human of just different things that you never would have expected are revealed to you in unexpected places unexpected ways yeah

41:50 David Gnozzi Yeah, and on the AI thing, I think the easiest and the more disarming argument we can have against AI, which... Which I still have to hear a good AI song, to be honest,

42:04 Luke F. Walton Yeah.

42:04 David Gnozzi that maybe just me

42:05 Luke F. Walton I've

42:05 David Gnozzi because I heard don't

42:05 Luke F. Walton funny ones.

42:06 David Gnozzi Yeah.

42:06 Luke F. Walton I've heard funny AI songs.

42:08 David Gnozzi Oh, I yeah, I can also I yeah, I hear cats playing metal. It's not, you know, it's not really a threat. But the point is, the point is. I don't remember. I think I was having a lesson with a client, with a student, and it was asking me, I don't remember the specifics, the details.

42:31 David Gnozzi It was asking me specific technical details. How do you do this or why you do this, right?

42:36 Luke F. Walton Yeah.

42:36 David Gnozzi Like, how did you come up with that? And at that moment, I remember realizing this, all that we do in music.

42:45 David Gnozzi is a consequence of how we feel and i was hired this was recent like two weeks ago i was hired by this dubai music production team right to mix one of their songs i didn't understand a word of

42:59 Luke F. Walton Cool.

42:59 David Gnozzi the song to be honest like i didn't i don't speak you know that language but as soon as i put the song up i immediately knew what the mood of the song was

43:12 Luke F. Walton Hmm.

43:12 David Gnozzi And so when I mix a song, I don't listen to the song and go, oh, I'm going to use that machine on the bass and I'm going to add the 60 hertz and I'm going to use that one on the two bass. No, what happens is the song makes me feel a certain way.

43:26 David Gnozzi that's the key that's what's missing and will always be missing everything else is a consequence of how I feel and the technical moves that we do the skills are there are second nature you don't think about it you just move based on how you feel and if I select this EQ versus this EQ is not because I'm listening to a detail it's because you makes me feel a certain way it just enhances what the song message is

43:55 Luke F. Walton Yeah.

43:56 David Gnozzi telling me has given me and i don't even understand the lyrics so

43:59 Luke F. Walton Yeah.

44:00 David Gnozzi that can never ever be swap for an ai the feeling is not just here in the room the feeling is shared and is what connects me to the artists because

44:12 Luke F. Walton Yes.

44:12 David Gnozzi if i send a mix that doesn't match what they feel and what they want to feel when listening to the music they're going to balance my mix they're going to say i and they say like that's the other thing right oh nobody knows what you use of course they don't they're not supposed to do you know what ingredients are in your chef meal no

44:32 Luke F. Walton Yeah.

44:32 David Gnozzi you don't you

44:33 Luke F. Walton Yeah.

44:33 David Gnozzi know if you like it or not though right you

44:35 Luke F. Walton Right.

44:35 David Gnozzi can tell the difference between mcdonald and a chef meal so they don't need to know and they don't just like the listeners but they're gonna bounce my mix and it never happens of course but when it happens they are not telling me oh can you please use i don't know the me must compressor instead of the

44:56 David Gnozzi I don't the distressor on that vocal they're not going to tell me that they're going to say that there's something that just I don't like where i don't know well

45:05 Luke F. Walton Yeah.

45:05 David Gnozzi that's it it means there's something in the connection between how they want to feel about their song and how i feel about their song there's a miscommunication there right and so you as an engineer you need to understand what they want because again not only they don't know what you used and what you did they're not supposed to it's your job to interpret what they want to feel when they hear the song Right.

45:29 Luke F. Walton Yes. Yes.

45:30 David Gnozzi That part, half of the job of an engineer is understanding what the artist want. And the artist, most of the time, they don't have even have the vocabulary or the technical knowledge to tell you some they don't even know at one more bass. They don't even know that. And they are not supposed to. Right. That's your job. It's your job to understand that. So it's so there are so many. trendy discussions nowadays that

45:56 Luke F. Walton Yeah.

45:57 David Gnozzi are like to be honest

45:58 Luke F. Walton Yes.

45:58 David Gnozzi like oh the

45:59 Luke F. Walton Yes.

45:59 David Gnozzi audience doesn't need what you use no they are not supposed to that's that's not do you think i really sometimes like i laugh because do you really think that i'm using i don't know an api eq because i expect people to know that i use an api eq no

46:16 Luke F. Walton Yeah.

46:16 David Gnozzi of course not it's you know that's not how it works but for sure there are songs that resonate more and it's obviously it's not just the mixing it's the song in the first place right that's the other i think moot point oh if you don't have a good song well then for nothing that that's

46:36 Luke F. Walton Yeah.

46:37 David Gnozzi assumed without

46:38 Luke F. Walton Yeah,

46:38 David Gnozzi having

46:38 Luke F. Walton right.

46:39 David Gnozzi songs we don't have anything in the first place that there's no need to repeat something that everybody knows right but then it's like you build the best car in the world and you don't paint it who's gonna buy it well but it's got a great engine yeah but it's rusty you know it's it's just it's such a crazy thought because uh everything that is successful is it's not one thing it's a complex network

47:05 Luke F. Walton Yes.

47:06 David Gnozzi of things that work all together and that's when you know things become they they never die

47:16 Luke F. Walton Hmm.

47:16 David Gnozzi because today we hear songs you

47:18 Luke F. Walton Yeah.

47:18 David Gnozzi hear i was at a good party one time and look this is not even one of my favorite bands i like them but i'm not like it's not my one of my top tens but um i recognize when that synergy happens right so i was at this party here in la a bunch of people big giant room and they only had a tiny little bluetooth speakers like

47:38 Luke F. Walton Mm

47:38 David Gnozzi it wasn't

47:39 Luke F. Walton -hmm.

47:39 David Gnozzi a party it wasn't like a car dark thing and so people were talking there was this bluetooth speakers on a corner and was playing music i don't know what the old music was going to play but at some point killing in the name of by

47:51 Luke F. Walton Hmm.

47:51 David Gnozzi rage against the machine started playing and sandy wallace is my favorite mixed engineers of all time he will always be everybody goes that uh i try to steal as much as i can i'm kidding but that

48:05 Luke F. Walton Yeah, I get

48:06 David Gnozzi that

48:06 Luke F. Walton it.

48:06 David Gnozzi song started playing and i was just chatting and immediately i was drawn to it i looked at the speaker because like holy shit this mix is 17 years old and it literally kicks kicks everything that has been playing so far still

48:21 Luke F. Walton Yeah.

48:21 David Gnozzi and you will always do that because that was a synergy between the songwriting the musicianship the production the mix the masters everything was just a perfect storm and

48:36 Luke F. Walton Yeah.

48:37 David Gnozzi you can hear the difference you can totally hear the difference because 20 years after still kicks ass i don't know what's not what was number one six months ago i don't think anybody knows and that is also you know the label system how we went from you know disposable artists to actually a and r building artists over time right before we were

49:01 David Gnozzi You were, you know, labeled where they expected an artist to pick up at the third album.

49:05 Luke F. Walton Yeah.

49:06 David Gnozzi Right now they expected to pick up. at the first single

49:10 Luke F. Walton First single,

49:10 David Gnozzi and if that

49:11 Luke F. Walton exactly.

49:11 David Gnozzi doesn't happen you're out the door right

49:13 Luke F. Walton Yep.

49:13 David Gnozzi and so the disposable artists a lot of it has to do with big label the practices and the absolutely abuse and with the music and artists but yeah i mean that's all the details that don't matter that's what happens that they do matter and that's how you create things that outlive you You

49:33 Luke F. Walton Yeah.

49:33 David Gnozzi know, that's your legacy,

49:34 Luke F. Walton I

49:34 David Gnozzi you

49:34 Luke F. Walton also

49:34 David Gnozzi know, as

49:35 Luke F. Walton really

49:35 David Gnozzi an artist.

49:35 Luke F. Walton I like the context of what you led with and what you're saying here of like the details matter. So don't do it yourself. And I really like that because like if you if you believe this too much, you'll probably be frozen when you're doing it for yourself.

49:49 Luke F. Walton So believe both at the same time. And I like that like that is a very logically consistent and easy to digest philosophy that you're bringing that I find really compelling.

49:59 Luke F. Walton compelling and refreshing sorry to interrupt this very important broadcast but it's time for one more advertisement for myself for this podcast um what i what i'm asking for is for you to rate it five stars share it with your friends this is like the most important thing for this podcast to grow so if you want to do this you go into the podcast screen right you click on the dot dot dot on spotify under there it says rate show and you go and you click it five stars if you could do that for me that's the best way for the algorithms all this stuff

50:27 Luke F. Walton stuff to share it out with the world i know that it's a lot to ask but if you could please please please just please just hit those three dots on a five star would really help us out and helps us you know get the get the word out and spread the love of music so thank you if you're listening on youtube you know what to do like subscribe all that good stuff thank you so much and here's the rest of the episode

50:46 David Gnozzi Yeah, thank you. I think, though, that there has to be. ideally one person that

50:52 Luke F. Walton Okay.

50:52 David Gnozzi is in charge of

50:54 Luke F. Walton Yeah.

50:54 David Gnozzi and have the final word

50:56 Luke F. Walton Yeah.

50:56 David Gnozzi right

50:57 Luke F. Walton Right.

50:57 David Gnozzi and look i'm not saying that it cannot work if there's multiple people because we've seen that happen like a band it's

51:05 Luke F. Walton Yeah.

51:05 David Gnozzi a classic scenario in which everybody has a say and

51:10 Luke F. Walton But bands break up like they pretty much always break up because and that's part of the magic of it though is like the Beatles It's like that wasn't a very long thing It was incredible because it but it was it was an organism that's pulling and tearing at the seams

51:23 David Gnozzi Yeah, but if you look at bands, there's always golden moments. right because maybe they change the lineup or the original lineup changes and that magic goes away but

51:33 Luke F. Walton Yes.

51:34 David Gnozzi the singer is the same all of them are the same it's just one person missing but the magic breaks or they change producer and that's it right and it's not because maybe i mean sometimes it's because the producer is amazing and we've seen that before like a producer has a record of making bands amazing that means a producer is a is amazing

51:56 Luke F. Walton Yeah,

51:56 David Gnozzi but sometimes

51:57 Luke F. Walton right.

51:57 David Gnozzi what happens is the producer is perfect for that project and if that's missing the project has something that yeah this album is okay it's not like the one before you know ideally there's one person that make the decision or at least has the final word and that ideally would be a skilled producer right and we've seen things working also when multiple people in the band has a say But that's usually a rhyme.

52:24 David Gnozzi Look at Metallica, right?

52:25 Luke F. Walton Hmm.

52:26 David Gnozzi They stay together, but there's literally documentaries about how much they fought and, you know, how hard it was to make a record. And I have friends.

52:36 David Gnozzi and big names that i can't name but i knew and i've seen how hard it was to go or get along and being able to make the next album and it happened because it happened but was was about not to happen because of those frictions right and uh so yeah ideally you know and those frictions sometimes bring something and

53:00 Luke F. Walton Totally.

53:01 David Gnozzi they are necessary for you know the brother brother but they're usually they usually don't last when there is a so much friction between you know people in a team eventually shit is gonna break like something is gonna give right and so yeah so that's why i strongly believe that if there's a

53:19 David Gnozzi are ideally a person that external and it's not so emotionally attached that is skilled and understand the musicians that you know you can trust like rick rubin is one great

53:31 Luke F. Walton Yes.

53:31 David Gnozzi example and

53:32 Luke F. Walton Yeah.

53:33 David Gnozzi i know people have different opinion about him i think it's it's a great one of the greatest that we had and it doesn't matter if it oh he sits on the couch all day well you know what that one time that he stands up and do something does something that's the glue that puts everything together you know I say him but there's many others so

53:50 Luke F. Walton Yes.

53:50 David Gnozzi yeah there's definitely you know I I think of course there are exceptions but exceptions shouldn't be taken as a rule if you ask me if you've seen the best albums songs runs it's always a team of people that you know work together

54:11 Luke F. Walton Yes. And I feel like even the people that are the solitary individual that does it all, I think a lot of that is smoke and mirrors and show business and the story.

54:22 David Gnozzi It is. It is, it is, it is definitely.

54:27 Luke F. Walton And that's a good thing. Like it's a good thing to have a team. It's a good thing to be a community. We're humans. Like that's what we do, right? Yeah.

54:33 David Gnozzi Yeah, for some reason, I think really technology and not just technology in the studio or in the music, just technology in general, our phones, social media, it really pushed people to be solitary and to be secluded.

54:50 David Gnozzi to somehow live this virtual life i understand why because it's somehow it's easier right because you can't fake so many things you can

55:02 Luke F. Walton yeah

55:02 David Gnozzi fake

55:02 Luke F. Walton yeah

55:02 David Gnozzi an amazing life on instagram and

55:05 Luke F. Walton yeah

55:05 David Gnozzi you

55:05 Luke F. Walton you can

55:05 David Gnozzi know

55:06 Luke F. Walton convince yourself you can convince yourself that that story that you're telling other people is actually your life and actually true yeah but

55:11 David Gnozzi yeah and there's a lot of people that you know they lie so much and i'm not saying this is in a malicious way like i understand like they put this mask on so often that they end up believing it right

55:24 Luke F. Walton some of it might be coming from a good place like you know like the secret grit or like you manifest it for yourself um but anything that's good can also be bad like i swear things can cut both ways yeah

55:36 David Gnozzi it is because it's all matter of how far you take it and you know i can give you a fork you can eat your meal with it or stab me in the neck so it you know it's always the user and how what do you decide to do with it and you know yeah that that's human nature though You know, you give human

55:59 David Gnozzi something there are gonna be a group of people that abuse it misuse it and use it for what it's not meant to and it turned out in a mess like history you know taught us this unfortunately but yeah i think a big part of it is that social media and the the miniaturization of uh of technology so before you needed a giant computer that was as big as this room to do anything now we have more power

56:26 David Gnozzi in our hands and our phone that we had it with a computer that was as big as my room.

56:31 Luke F. Walton Yeah.

56:32 David Gnozzi So the miniaturization of the technology is really a big part of it. People don't necessarily think about that, but it's somehow made it so, well, now I don't need to collaborate so I can do it here. You don't need to, but it would be better if you did.

56:51 Luke F. Walton Yeah,

56:51 David Gnozzi And

56:51 Luke F. Walton right.

56:52 David Gnozzi so, like I said earlier, you start cutting corners in all the things that you do. because

56:58 Luke F. Walton Yeah.

56:58 David Gnozzi well it doesn't matter it's not that much different i'm just well that's that's how you go from a lamborghini to a prius just starting taking off things and then at the end of the day it's a whole different car

57:11 Luke F. Walton Yeah. Yeah. Right. oh it's a good point and it's such an interesting give and take push and pull of you lean harder into a technology or i noticed i went on a i did an international flight and on that international flight i just let myself you know have as much screen time i was like i'm gonna take it easy usually i do some work or something i'm just gonna play video games and whatever i got off that flight and i got home and i'm like oh i'm addicted now like

57:36 David Gnozzi Yeah.

57:37 Luke F. Walton i need to go cold turkey for a second and just put all of this away because i hey i developed an unhealthy relationship to technology and one international flight it's

57:46 David Gnozzi Yeah, it

57:46 Luke F. Walton like man it is so dangerous it's crazy yeah

57:49 David Gnozzi is. It is. And I think partially it is on purpose that

57:53 Luke F. Walton yeah

57:53 David Gnozzi you believe

57:54 Luke F. Walton i

57:54 David Gnozzi in conspiracy theories because, you

57:56 Luke F. Walton don't

57:57 David Gnozzi know, even think

57:57 Luke F. Walton know that's a conspiracy there it's like their stated business objective right it's like get you on the phone as long as you can

58:01 David Gnozzi about every business has some sort of department that study. How to either keep buying the product or keep you here longer. right so like the the the old mcdonald to combine fat with salt salt

58:20 Luke F. Walton Yeah,

58:20 David Gnozzi gives

58:21 Luke F. Walton it's

58:21 David Gnozzi you good. the flavor and fat makes it last longer it

58:24 Luke F. Walton Yeah.

58:25 David Gnozzi gets you addicted to

58:26 Luke F. Walton Yeah.

58:26 David Gnozzi it the colors the red and yellow makes you hungry this is studies there's a science to study these things to get you more addicted to things every platform

58:39 David Gnozzi Instagram Facebook TikTok YouTube is constantly studying how to keep you there longer why

58:45 Luke F. Walton Yeah, right.

58:46 David Gnozzi if you post something on Facebook they don't like if you put the link to Instagram or the other platform they don't want you to click off the platform they want to keep you there right and so this is kind of like

58:59 David Gnozzi it's if you again if you believe in conspiracies like just to keep the population numb you know the less productive we are the easier we can be controlled and have a job instead of a career and you know that's not what they want

59:15 Luke F. Walton Right. Well, but I understand and the beauty and that's the beauty of the revolutionary power of music is that it is like one of the ultimate FUs to that kind of thinking, that kind of living. Because even if you have a day job, you know, even if you're doing the corporate stuff, if you have music, you're never fully under control. You

59:32 David Gnozzi Yeah,

59:32 Luke F. Walton know what you're doing it for.

59:33 David Gnozzi and

59:34 Luke F. Walton You're in theirs.

59:34 David Gnozzi that's what boggles my mind with the AI thing.

59:38 Luke F. Walton Okay.

59:40 David Gnozzi there's it seems to be this kind of debate as to like oh i don't like ai because talentless people now can make music well first of all it's if you if a talentless person can make music then everybody can so when something is this available as zero value zero the value of things in our world is based on how rare it is that's

60:07 Luke F. Walton Right.

60:08 David Gnozzi why gold is worth money

60:09 Luke F. Walton Scarcity.

60:10 David Gnozzi you

60:10 Luke F. Walton Yeah.

60:10 David Gnozzi know and rocks are not because you can find rocks everywhere but not gold so if something becomes if everybody can push a button and write a prompt that thing is completely valueless right

60:23 David Gnozzi talent will always be value because it's rare but what they don't understand is it's not that we don't nobody cares about that like

60:30 Luke F. Walton Yeah.

60:30 David Gnozzi if you want to play video games pretending to make music do it it's literally not as different as playing video games it's the same fucking thing it's less fun because you're typing prompts but hey you know there's people have fun with weird stuff problem is that what they don't understand is you are the first that's going to be taken ow is the people that use ai because you are the most replaceable

60:55 Luke F. Walton Okay. Yeah, right. position Because you're not making

60:57 David Gnozzi in

60:57 Luke F. Walton your own

60:57 David Gnozzi the world

60:57 Luke F. Walton fingerprint.

60:57 David Gnozzi yeah so

60:58 Luke F. Walton Yeah, yeah.

60:59 David Gnozzi it's like oh you're you're talking like you don't like me because you're gonna take my job my job no i'm fine like you're before it gets to me gets to you like way before so you should be probably worrying about not me I don't care. Like, this is like what we do here and here. I mean, me and all my colleagues, engineers, it's handmade stuff.

61:20 Luke F. Walton Hmm.

61:21 David Gnozzi And going back to the car, you know, stupid comparison, people don't stop buying Ferraris because the Prius is on the market. They don't.

61:30 Luke F. Walton Yeah.

61:30 David Gnozzi The people that still want a Ferrari,

61:32 Luke F. Walton Yeah.

61:32 David Gnozzi that's what we do.

61:33 Luke F. Walton Yeah.

61:33 David Gnozzi We build hypercars. It's a completely different market, completely. What I don't understand is this. Music, I think people, the real artists have a call.

61:47 David Gnozzi right they don't make music because they like making music that's the people who has passion and does it as a hobby even if it's like they put a lot of effort in it the real true artists have a call

62:00 Luke F. Walton Mm.

62:00 David Gnozzi they have to make music

62:02 Luke F. Walton Yeah.

62:02 David Gnozzi or they die inside they

62:04 Luke F. Walton Yes.

62:04 David Gnozzi have to get it out i've seen real artists enough of them in my life that they have to do it and they wouldn't care about the money the fame the glory nothing because there's many artists that they are not famous and don't make money but i promise they're real artists and i think everybody who's been in the music industry for a while will agree with me you can recognize a real artist

62:28 David Gnozzi they don't have anything else in mind other than getting what they have inside out through music right the the of course it's called music business so there's a business side of it right

62:41 Luke F. Walton which Right.

62:41 David Gnozzi needs to be taken care if you want to do this for a living but not everybody wants to do this for a living a lot of people do it because they like it that's why i did a video so a few days ago in which i there was a bit about the suno ceo that said like oh humans

62:56 Luke F. Walton Oh,

62:56 David Gnozzi don't

62:56 Luke F. Walton yeah.

62:56 David Gnozzi like to make music and

62:58 Luke F. Walton Yeah.

62:58 David Gnozzi i'm like tell me you've never been around anybody any musician in your life without telling me telling me you never wrote a single line or a riff or played a note in your life because you just gave it away because the reason 90 of the people that makes music makes music because they like it not

63:17 Luke F. Walton Yeah.

63:17 David Gnozzi because they make money out of it

63:18 Luke F. Walton Yeah. Right.

63:20 David Gnozzi because

63:20 Luke F. Walton Or totally.

63:20 David Gnozzi it's literally the 10 of the

63:22 Luke F. Walton Yeah.

63:23 David Gnozzi artists in the world that can make money out of it you know so like you're so off and you're so out of touch it's not even funny like you really believe that humans don't like to make music like it's ridiculous because of that i was talking to with andrew shapps he was on my channel he said something very true no matter what happens you play music and i listen to music dynamic will never stop

63:49 David Gnozzi Because that literally started in the Stone Age.

63:52 Luke F. Walton Yeah. Yeah.

63:53 David Gnozzi And no technology has taken that away because that's what human wants. They want to connect with other humans. They don't want to connect with an AI. They don't want to connect with a laptop. Sure shit, they don't want to pay a ticket to go see a laptop on

64:09 Luke F. Walton Yeah.

64:09 David Gnozzi the stage.

64:09 Luke F. Walton Yeah.

64:10 David Gnozzi So that dynamic will never change, you know, because that's how I believe, I want to believe that music started.

64:18 David Gnozzi started it's it's a form of communication that is not spoken words is a way to transfer my feelings to you and to a crowd and the crowd responds to it that stupid example i did before you know the man it happens to me many times i don't know the lyrics because many of my clients are not from the states i don't understand the words but you can immediately tell what the mood of the song is immediately

64:44 Luke F. Walton Yes.

64:45 David Gnozzi yeah that dynamic will never change

64:47 Luke F. Walton Yeah. That leads me to my last question. I always ask guests this. So the show is called Love Music More. The segment's called Love Music Why. You're already touching on it. But it's a simple but difficult question. Why do you love music?

64:59 David Gnozzi For two reasons, I think. One, it's because you can always find a song that matches your state of mind at a certain moment. right and either kills it or

65:16 Luke F. Walton Yes.

65:17 David Gnozzi enhances it right

65:18 Luke F. Walton Yes.

65:19 David Gnozzi if you're broken you can always find a song that somehow even if it makes you feel even more broken it heals you by doing that right or

65:30 Luke F. Walton Right.

65:30 David Gnozzi it gives you hope something like that and if you are about to if you're pumped and you're going to the gym or about like deadlift whatever you want to be even more pumped so it's kind of you know a natural drug i want to say right

65:46 Luke F. Walton Hmm.

65:46 David Gnozzi so you can if it does so many things for us for human beings it heals us it makes us laugh it makes us want to dance with it makes us want to love more it reminds you it reminds us of things like how many memories we have attached to a song and

66:02 Luke F. Walton Yes.

66:02 David Gnozzi hear a song we immediately go back to where we were in high school or something like that or a specific summer right there's so many of these things happen and the second thing it's because it i can't express and this is very personal and you know limited to this but i can't express my own creativity even as a mix engineer so that's also my my out for my own creativity and uh yeah but the first one i think is the most important like

66:33 David Gnozzi music really does if you if we think about it that's so many things there was this inspirational quote running around at the time of the covid and uh that was kind of a again one of those things that you know but you don't think about it and it was like imagine if we were locked down for a year and a half without music movies and books we would be all dead From Suzanne.

66:56 David Gnozzi Yes, we will be all just jumping off the window, right? So we kind of tend to believe that these things are not necessary, like it's a frivolous thing, movies and books and music. That's survival level kind of need. It's just right below air and water, those things.

67:19 David Gnozzi So that I really believe it. I think music saved so many lives one way or the other and so books and so everything that is art. That's what art does. You know, it really is what art, any form of art does.

67:37 Luke F. Walton Beautifully said. So where can people get in touch with you? Where can they? Get more and hear that awesome Andrew Scheff's interview too.

67:45 David Gnozzi yeah everything so of course the the youtube channel is MixbusTV and all the social medias are on MixbusTV so it's super easy whatever platform you are that's on MixbusTV and if you want to know more get in touch with me whether for uh booking mixes masters or lessons or anything there's a website that's called MixbusTV.com so we made it super easy and that's where you can get all the information

68:09 David Gnozzi information and get in touch and all that thank

68:12 Luke F. Walton Thank you so much for taking the time, David. I really enjoyed this.

68:14 David Gnozzi you for having me thank you for having me

68:17 Luke F. Walton My pleasure.