All kinds of people use an online session musician, from hobbyists to full time composers and everyone in between. Claudio is an MD Ophthalmologist from Sicily who is also an award winning photographer, writer and producer. He got in contact with an instrumental progressive rock project that he needed live bass guitar on.
My old mate Jon Howells took up drum duties and Ryan Haberfield absolutely tears it up on guitar. Jon has been recording drums remotely for over 10 years now and was the guy who inspired me to get involved. He’s a great guy and a fantastic session drummer. Ryan is a very busy UK session guitarist who also does a lot of remote online recording.
Claudio sent pretty comprehensive demos to play to and already had much of the bass lines planned out. He needed me to bring those ideas to life and add my own touches to it. I used my MusicMan StingRay 5 for all tracks as there was some below E stuff going on. This bass has a great rock tone. I went through my Avalon U5 and Jules Monique bass pre. Claudio got this mixed and mastered professionally by Riccardo Samperi and it sounds epic. Most people want a ‘blank canvas’ to work with in terms of the bass so I send a DI track that has no EQ or compression to give complete freedom in the mix. I then send a second slightly fatter sounding track which can be blended or used on its own or discarded if not needed. The key is lots of options if you want it!
It’s always such a thrill to hear a pretty much bare bones track you played on blossom into an actual great sounding piece of music. You really get to appreciate the process from the initial stage to the end and all the skills it requires to produce music.
Claudio put together these videos of his tracks “Everyday Dreams” and “Equilibrium”.
