About

The Short Story

My name is Daniel Fantauzzi, i'm a 24 year old multi-instrumentalist currently residing  in Toronto, Canada. This website exists as a way for me to share my work with the rest of the world in regards to the realms of sound and music design. I compose original music for my self and for projects as the opportunities present them selves (game and film). I also do sound effect related work, mainly for games, though i'd love to try my hand at movies as well.

The Long Story

I suppose like most people in similar shoes, it started with a passion. Two big passions, actually, which were Music and Technology. As a musician, like many kids, I wanted to become a guitar rock god. I idolized guys like Slash from Guns n' Roses and dreamed of the day that I might be able to stand on stage and shred out a blistering fast solo while the crowd cheered. I got my first guitar when I was 12 (thanks Rich!) and started taking guitar lessons, which involved learning music theory. Naturally, I hated it. I hated the boring music theory (like many kids) when all I wanted to do was rock out while banging my head. So I ended up quitting and becoming disenchanted with the instrument.

A year later, I came back to the instrument, this time determined to learn to play it. However, instead of going through music theory and an instructor, I taught my self to play instead. I've ever done things my own way and to this day that's not changed, it worked out well enough though, as i'm a fairly competent guitar player now (um, I think..). Oddly enough, I did finally decide to learn music theory (or at least being able to read music) on my own many years later after realizing how beneficial it could be to my music composition. Odd how things come full circle, in the end.

Anyways, to continue with my epic story.. as my guitar playing progressed to a point of some sort of semblance of skill, I started wanting to write my own music. This is where a fundamental personality trait of mine comes in to play. Suffice it to say, i'm a cheap bastard. I hate spending money on over-priced stuff if I think I can do it my self just as good or better. Being well versed in hardware and technology, and having grown up with computers and the internet, I quickly started learning how to go about making and recording music. Due to the advent of modern recording technology, it wasn't necessary for guys like me to go into expensive recording studios. Since most studios have progressed to almost an entirely digital setup, I could achieve almost the same level of quality they could get, but in my own home and on my own time and budget.

This method certainly had a steep learning curve associated with it, since not only did I have to learn the core hardware and software aspect of doing it your self, but I also had to learn *how* to record and produce. This included understanding acoustics, the sound (frequency spectrum), what sounded good, what didn't, how to achieve certain effects, understanding the recording, mixing and mastering process and everything else that comes with this field of production. Nonetheless I pressed on, slowly accumulating hardware and software as my budget allowed, reading online guides and building stuff I needed as cheaply as I could which I couldn't afford otherwise. This ranged from me building my own desk (as can be seen in the picture, with rack hardware mounting spots) to me scratch building my own electronic drum set because I couldn't justify the $3000 sets sold by Roland. I even made my own acoustic sound treatment!

In the end, however, it all worked out (mostly..). I now have a fairly respectable home studio setup, with a decent amount of hardware (which I will detail below) and software instruments / effects, all of which were carefully chosen in order to offer me the most possibilities with my given budget and composition goals.

As for my music? I compose a wide variety of styles of music, based on the mood i'm in, or the project i'm working on. I tend to enjoy merging different genres of music. You will often find me mixing orchestral / symphonic music with heavy rock which is one of my favorite styles to write in. While i've composed music in a wide range of genres, a general trait of all my music is that it tends to be progressive in nature (in the literal sense of the word), meaning that my pieces often start off slow or fairly quiet and eventually work their way up to strong, powerful finales. I've always enjoyed this style of music as it often imparts a sense of awe to the listener if done correctly. I have no idea if my music does this for people or not, but I do try!

As evidenced by my range of composition style, the influences on my sound are also largely spread out, including (obviously!) prog rock gods Pink Floyd and Deep Purple, to far flung doom metal guys like Anathema, Agalloch, and Opeth and on to Film Composers such as Clint Mansell, Danny Elfman and Videogame composer Jeremy Soule. I also have much respect for the guys at Immediate Music, who are responsible for much of the high impact music you hear in movie trailers.

Another important thing i'd like to make mention of is how I master my songs. If you download and listen to any of my music, you will no doubt notice it's not as loud as other songs you might have. Without getting into the specifics of it, I will simply say that I value sonic dynamics and clarity and refuse to get into the "loudness" war that almost all modern music is engaged in. At a maximum, I try not to master any of my music passed an average -14 db RMS. Some modern songs these days exceed -10 db (or more!), which is just insane. Modern compression techniques are killing the musicality of music and i'll have no part in it. Music is not supposed to be consistent background noise, it is supposed to be paid attention to and enjoyed for what it is. Average listeners won't care about this, but for guys who care about how their music sounds, or who own higher quality equipment where the differences between insane compression are more noticeable, I hope you appreciate it. If it's not loud enough, turn up your volume!

For other musicians or DIY home recordists who might be interested, below you'll find a detailing of all my instruments and hardware / software that I use. I will update this information periodically as necessary.

HARDWARE

Custom Built Intel Core 2 Duo system running Windows Vista 64-Bit with 4 gigs of memory.

Presonus FP10 Firepod Audio Interface

ART Gold MPA Tube Mic Pre-Amp

Behringer Miniamp Headphone distributor

Behringer Ultrapatch Patch Bay

M-Audio BX5A Near-Field Active Monitors

M-Audio Keyrig 49 MIDI Control keyboard

AKG K240S Open Back Headphones

Audio Technica ATH-M40 Closed Back Monitoring Headphones

Custom Built 12 piece electronic drum kit, with Alesis Trigger I|O MIDI Controller

ART M-Two Large Condenser Microphone

MXL 2001 Large Condenser Microphone

Shure SM57 Dynamic Microphone

2 Apex 185 Matched Pencil Condenser Microphones

INSTRUMENTS

Vox Standard 24 Electric Guitar (1970?)

Gibson Les Paul Epiphone

Art & Lutherie Acoustic 6-String Cutaway

Takamine G-series 12-string Dreadnought

Fender Squire P-Bass

Native Indian Flute (spiritwalker?)

SOFTWARE

Cockos Reaper (Primary DAW)

FL Studio

Tons of VST instruments and effects. Too many to list..