Luciano Tucunduva (Gilberto Gil, Milton Nascimento)

Luciano Tucunduva is a music producer and mixing engineer based in São Paulo, Brazil. His work includes soundtracks, sound design, and mixing for Netflix, Globo, Warner, Discovery Kids, Cartoon Network, and Nickelodeon. As an audio engineer. Tucunduva worked on the series Clubversão (HBO), recording artists such as Gilberto Gil, Milton Nascimento, Kevin Johansen, Ney Matogrosso, Baby do Brasil, and Tiago Iorc.

Tell us about your current studio setup.

Having been through several studios, I tend to adapt well to different recording and mixing setups. In my personal setup, I focus on quality and mobility. I can either use it in my own room or easily plug it into other studios and have it running smoothly.

Pro Tools Ultimate, Logic Pro X and Ableton Live 11 running on a Focusrite interface. I also use KRK monitors and small JBL boxes to check the mix in different media.

I often use Waves, GoodHertz, Brainworx, Valhalla and PSP plugins. My favorite plugins change from time to time. Lately my go-to plugin has been the SSL 9000 J, which always works as a good starting point on almost everything.

The Black Box Analog Design HG-2 has also featured a lot in my mixes recently for the ability to just appear as a subtle warmth where I need it.

Having worked on so many songs over the past few years, how do you stay fresh and excited about mixing music these days?

I think I'm first a music fan, then a mixing engineer. The work I do is just an extension of this never-ending passion for music.

To discover new sounds, I'm always tuned in to curators I already like, newsletters, and doing my own research, as well as exchanging with colleagues and artists. I'm that guy who's always asking people what they're listening to!

How do you approach the mixing of a song?

The first thing I like to do is open the song in the DAW and instinctively balance the volume and panning during the first play as well as organizing it in my base template.

In general, the artist's intentions are already implicit in the arrangement, so I build the mix from there.

Then I organize the project inside my routing template, and with everything organized, I focus on the creative mix. It's really intuitive and it depends a lot on what the song is asking for.

Communication with the artist during the process is one of the most important parts, as well. I take into account both the technical notes ("add more reverb on that snare") and the vibe notes ("I think that pad should sound more greenish").

From time to time I do an A/B test with the rough mix to understand what the artist was listening to before sending it to me.