Latin Grammy winner Luiz Tornaghi, a 1993 IAR graduate, recently came back to the school to give a lecture, along with a Q & A session, on mastering music.

Attendees listened intently and asked Luiz about the tips and techniques he uses when mastering music, his suggestions on hardware signal processors vs software plug-ins, his equipment choices, and what tweaks can be done to a home studio to get the best quality mix.

Over the years, Luiz has had the privilege of mastering and mixing for some of Brazil’s top artists such as Maria Bethania, Chico Buarque, Caetano Veloso, Joao Donato, Francis Hime, Paulinho da Viola, and Simone. In 2005, he won a Latin Grammy for “Album of the Year” for his work in mastering the album Cantando Historias with engineer Moogie Canazio.

Today, Luiz is a partner in the mastering studio Batmastersom in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The studio has a 5.1 system with B & W 805 speakers, and the processing is entirely computerized. “We are finally at a point where, if you are very careful about every aspect of your system, you can have an all-digital signal path with enough quality to get any job done and have the invaluable advantage of instantaneously tweaking details anytime throughout a project.”

Thanks for coming, Luiz, and good luck in your future endeavors.