Artist, producer and remixer Carmen Rizzo (pictured) credits Digidesign Pro Tools as his all-in-one tool for music creation and recording. Rizzo is a two-time Grammy nominee who recently scored his first film, The Power of the Game, directed by Michael Apted. He has worked with a diverse group of artists and bands, including Paul Oakenfold, BT, Alanis Morissette, Coldplay, Seal and more.
Recently, Rizzo completed a remix for Platinum artist Blue October and remixed his own song, “Easy Way Out,” featuring recording artist jem, for an exclusive Barnes & Noble CD entitled Sunday Music. He also remixed a song for Greenpeace, “Go Green” by Dave Stewart (formerly of Eurythmics), a song that also features Sarah McLachlan, Annie Lennox, Imogen Heap and Natalie Imbruglia.
“I make my living using Pro Tools for audio and MIDI on my desktop and laptop, and for me it’s flawless,” Rizzo says. “Being able to do all of my recording, MIDI sequencing and editing inside of Pro Tools makes my life a lot easier because it gives me the type of workflow that’s perfect for the way I work.”
Rizzo’s Hollywood-based studio is equipped with a Pro Tools HD 2 Accel system complete with a variety of Digidesign plug-ins and virtual instruments. For work on the road, he uses Pro Tools M-Powered Version 7.3 software along with one of his many M-Audio interfaces and MIDI controllers, which include a FireWire 410, Fast Track Pro, Audiophile, NRV10, M-Audio Black Box, Ozonic, Transit, Radium 61, Trigger Finger and Oxygen II.
“There’s plenty of times where I’ve needed to work on a session while on the road, or even while on a plane,” he explains. “My M-Powered systems make it easy for me to just take a session from the HD system in my studio and hit the road. Being able to move back and forth between the studio and the road so quickly allows me to be more efficient with my time.”
Both of Rizzo’s Pro Tools systems are outfitted with Digidesign plug-ins, including Reel Tape Suite, ReVibe and Synchronic, plus SoundFuel’s SOLID. He also relies on the Hybrid synthesizer developed by the Digidesign Advanced Instrument Research (A.I.R.) group.
“I use Hybrid an awful lot, and its sound quality is great for someone like me who does a lot of electronic music. It’s obviously catered a bit to modern-sounding synths, but because of all of the customizable parameters, you can tweak it around and tailor it to how you want it to sound.”
For more information about Rizzo, visit www.carmenrizzo.com. For more info about Pro Tools and M-Audio systems, visit www.digidesign.com and www.m-audio.com.
Also, be sure to check out Electronic Musician‘s interview with Rizzo in its August 2007 issue, and click here to read EM’s bonus interview with Rizzo.
