Recording and Production in the News

Carlo Camera Extols The Virtues Of Prism Sound Audio Conversion

The Italian mastering engineer has equipped his facility with a top of the range Prism Sound ADA-8XR because it offers no compromise A/D D/A conversion.

Cambridge, UK: May 9th 2018: After 15 years as a producer, Carlo Camera made the switch to mastering engineer when he realized he had a natural aptitude for the role.

“I love music and listening to new music every day is a joy,” he says. “As a producer I used to work on the same songs for months but as a mastering engineer I can be 100% focused on a song for a limited time. I’m a perfectionist and this brings out the best of what I can do and keeps me fresh and creative.”

Camera now works out of Solid Mastering (www.solid-mastering.com), the facility he opened in Bergamo, Italy, in 2015. One of the first items he purchased for his new studio was a Prism Sound ADA-8XR multichannel audio converter, which he describes as the king of his analogue/digital conversion and the heart of his monitoring set up.

Solid Mastering in Bergamo, Italy. Opened by Carlo Camera in 2015

“The first Prism Sound converter I owned was a Lyra 2 and I found it’s A/D astonishingly good,” he explains. “When I set up my own mastering studio I decided to go with the ADA-8XR because I needed top notch D/A converters for my monitoring system, as well as fantastic A/D, of course.”

Camera says he finds the ADA-8XR’s routing extremely flexible and has had no issues setting it up with his mastering console and external active crossovers.

“My Prism Sound ADA-8XR behaves perfectly and allows me to take advantage of a no compromise AD/DA conversion in my particular setup,” he says. “The results are simply stunning and the ADA-8XR is the perfect ally for all my high end mastering equipment such as like Pom Fairchild, Maselec, Sontec, Knif Soma and Tubetech.”

Designed by Glenn Stanton of Running Brook Design, Solid Mastering is equipped with PMC MB2 monitors that have been calibrated to work optimally in Camera’s room.

“95% of the time I work with the PMCs,” he says. “They give me detail and the big picture at the same time and I would struggle to find another system that gets close in terms of naturalness, authenticity and quality.”

Offering stem and stereo mastering and stem mixing, Solid Mastering is one of few Italian facilities to provide analogue mastering services including online mastering services with real analogue summing. Recent Solid Mastering clients have included DJ Nelson (J Balvin, Nicky Jam), Eddie Lover, Faya, Bonnot and Kemzo, while Camera’s own production credits include projects for a variety of record labels such as Ego, Universal France, BIP Records, Roster and Blanco y Negro.

“Mastering is such a crafty art; it's the last step before music gets released to the world,” Camera says. “Of course, heart and ears always come first, but having the best gear is a huge advantage. Much love and respect to all the creative souls!”