SoundGym Hero: Francesco Minotti

A Sound engineer with a Master's in Sound Technology, currently working at Consorzio ZdB and teaching high school. Passionate about music, MMA, whiskey tasting, using their diverse interests to enrich their creative and technical endeavors in the music industry. Francesco Minotti is this month's SoundGym Hero!

How did you first find your way into making music?

I started taking guitar lessons at the age of fourteen, driven by a desire to imitate my favorite rock guitarists. My teacher soon introduced me to the world of guitar pedals, and from that moment my quest for the perfect tone began.

I started recording myself while playing, and the passion for recording and sound processing was immediately born in me. I decided to enroll in the conservatory, and in 2021 I received my master's degree in Sound Technology.

I now work in a production studio and record label called Consorzio ZdB where I work as a recording, mixing and mastering engineer for record productions and as a live sound engineer for our artists' concerts. I also work as a professor of Sound Technology in a music high school.

Aside from music, what hobbies or activities do you enjoy?

I like reading books, especially essays and philosophy books, and watching movies, which I tend to prefer to TV series. I'm a big fan of MMA and practice it in the gym. I think it's the best sport for self-defense and also helps you stay fit.

I like whiskey and I recently entered the world of tasting spirits, which pairs very well with another passion of mine which is smoking cigars.

What’s something you're surprisingly good at that has nothing to do with music?

I could say submitting people at BJJ class ahahah.

Apart from that, I think I'm quite good at communicating with people and I don't find it difficult to immediately gain confidence. In reality this is a skill that helps me a lot especially in my work both as a sound engineer and as a professor.

If you could play or create with any artist, who would it be and why?

I would have loved to work with Frank Zappa.

He was not only a phenomenal musician and composer but also a very skilled mixing engineer, in fact he produced and mixed his works in an exceptional way: you can really hear all the instruments and minute details of his complex arrangements!

Another musician I would love to work with, who is also a producer and mixing engineer, is Kurt Ballou from Converge. 

He is one of the guitarists and producers who most influences me in my search for tone, both when I play guitar and when I record and mix metal music.

Last but not least, Trent Reznor from Nine Inch Nails. I love his work of mixing electronic sounds with rock and metal music.

What piece of music gear do you love the most, and what makes it irreplaceable in your creative process?

Besides my guitars, definitely guitar pedals. I started as a guitarist as I said before, and I have a lot of pedals that I use both in the studio during recording sessions and live. For me, pedals and signal processors strongly influence the creative process and push you to play something that would never have been possible to think of without them.

However, I don't just use them on guitars, I use them on everything, heavily influenced by Tchad Blake and "Evil" Joe Barresi, two of my favorite music producers and sound engineers in the world who use guitar pedals to give sound a different flavor or even transform and mangle it.

What daily or weekly habits do you have in place to keep you creating?

I set daily and weekly tasks and write them down on a magnetic board, whether they are studying a certain thing or listening to an album, particularly if it belongs to a genre with which I am not very familiar: for me, listening to different genres and styles of music helps a lot in the creative phase, with the aim of being as original as possible and never being predictable, trying to bring something new to the music.

What keeps you motivated to continue making music?

I consistently adhered to the concept of "art for art's sake," which encapsulates the belief that 'authentic' art exists in a realm entirely separate from societal values and practical functions, whether educational, moral, or political. However, in this period of my life I tend to see music and art in general as strong means of communication, especially to express the discomfort that comes from difficult or unpleasant situations.

So now I'm much more inclined to fill music with messages, whether it contains lyrics or not, trying to communicate them through the precise choice of timbres, harmony, melody and rhythm. Another aspect that motivates me to continue making music is the desire to revive the music scene, especially in Italy, bringing music that has content, since I think that today a lot of music is devoid of content and made only as an easy way to achieve success, get noticed or make money.

What song would you choose as the soundtrack of your life?

Whoa tough question. I listen to different artists and genres of music depending on the mood I'm in, so it would be very difficult to choose just one song that represents who I am.

Therefore I choose this song with which I find myself particularly close at this time from a cultural, ethical and political point of view. I had the pleasure of working with this band and being on stage with them: this way I got to understand even better their music and the messages and emotions they intend to communicate with it.

The song is “Luglio, agosto, settembre (nero)” by Area.

What's your favorite feature on SoundGym, and how has it helped you in your musical journey?

I have to say frequency games, especially Peak Master, because it helped me learn to listen to frequencies to immediately recognize if there is a tonal problem and therefore be able to make super-fast decisions when it comes to equalize.

In the category of frequency games I also include Delay Control when it comes to recognise delays set under 30 milliseconds, cause it really forces you to listen to and memorize sounds out of phase: I think phase correlation is one of the most important things to take into consideration when we work with sound.

What’s something exciting you're working on or looking forward to?

I'm currently working as a mixing engineer on a live album recorded in 2023 that will be printed both on CD and vinyl and released during this year by the record label I work for, Consorzio ZdB, which you can follow on Instagram and other platforms to stay updated on record releases and live concerts!

With Consorzio ZdB we are also preparing our artists’ tours which will begin this spring.

As a musician I’m writing new stuff which I hope I can record and play live as soon as possible; I love being in the studio and record my own stuff experimenting with sounds and I’m always thrilled to bring my music on stage and curious to see how people respond to it.
I just can’t wait to be on stage both as engineer and as a guitarist, it’s the life I chose and I love it!

You can follow Francesco on his Website, IG, YouTube, and LinkedIn.