In hybrid mixing, real-time bounce is non-negotiable. Fast Bounce makes it painless—I hit go, walk away, and come back to finished exports.
— Thiago Baggio
Thiago, you’ve worked with some of the biggest labels and artists in Brazil and beyond, and earned three Latin Grammys along the way. What guiding philosophy do you carry with you into every session—whether it’s with a major label or an independent artist?
This one is easy. To be honest I don’t care if it’s a record label or an independent artist, I don’t care if I like the genre or if the song is good or bad. I just do my job to the highest level I can.
Your career shows a lot of versatility across genres and production styles. When you sit down to mix, what are the first things you listen for, and how do you decide on the direction of a mix?
Well, first thing I do is understand what the client wants. I like to set up a call and understand how the song was made (very simple and straight forward or in a professional studio with a lot of gear searching for the exact sounds), where it was recorded (home studio, professional studio, live on stage, etc) and I always ask for their direction. I need to understand if they think if it already sounds close to what they want or if not, if I can be more creative or not… Then while I prepare the tracks to be mixed, I listen to every and each instrument soloed and ask for a rough mix to A/B and compare with my mix while doing the job. I need to understand if I’m making it better or worse and how far I am going. Sometimes change is well accepted and sometimes not, so it’s good to have a parameter to compare to.
Having started in a rapidly changing music industry, you’ve seen the rise of new tools, plugins, and workflows. What do you think has changed the most in the way records are made today compared to when you began, and what excites you most about where things are headed?
I had the chance to be part of maybe the last generation that actually had full time jobs in big recording studios, attending to multiple different sessions a day before things changed drastically. I try not to think about what the industry is right now and what it will become in the future. I just focus more on what I want to keep doing. I mostly work in sessions where the musicians play all together at the same time, reacting to each other, changing things together and more importantly making music together. This is what I learned, what I like and how I envision what music is. However though it’s cool to have modern tools to help me do what I do even if it does not follow the trend.
Winning three Latin Grammys and being recognized multiple times as one of Brazil’s top engineers is no small feat. Looking back, what moments or projects felt like turning points in your journey, and what do you still hope to achieve in the next phase of your career?
Winning awards is just a consequence. I don’t think I even need to mention that working with music is no easy. Most of us end up doing a bunch of other jobs besides the one we actually chose to do within music. In my case, I’m my own accountant, agent, secretary, assistant, designer, manager, I handle my own marketing and social media, among many other things—on top of making music itself, of course. And it all gets even more complicated when you’re also a father, husband, provider, friend, son… Oh! It’s a lot! All this to say that receiving an award doesn’t define me. Receiving an award doesn’t say who I am. On the contrary, I’m still all those guys I just mentioned above. But being recognized for your work, that is priceless. It brings me a lot of joy and definitely gives us a push to keep going, with the conviction that the path taken so far, often difficult and full of sacrifices, was indeed the right one.