Producer Corrado Rustici Chooses Atlantis Mic for Italian Pop Star "Virginio"

    Italian producer Corrado Rustici, together with engineer Michael Rosen, auditioned many top mics for recent sessions at Rosen's 'East Bay Recorders', but chose Lauten Audio's 'Atlantis' FC-387 for Italian pop singer Virginio's vocals.

Corrado Rustici and Michael Rosen at East Bay Recorders

Rustici has a body of work that surpasses 70-million in album sales, and although he is most well-known in Italy with his work on music from mega-stars such as Zucchero and Andrea Bocelli, he has made California his home-base for many years and has worked with British and US superstars such as Jeff Beck, Eric Clapton, Stevie Ray Vaughn, John Lee Hooker, and Stewart Copeland, to name a few. Most recently, during his production of new Italian breakout singer and songwriting star Virginio, Rustici booked the East Bay Recorders studio in Oakland and working with owner/engineer Michael Rosen recorded vocals for Virginio's new album for Universal Music Italy. When evaluating microphones to best bring out Virginio's pop-star voice, Rosen and Rustici auditioned a series of industry leading microphones as would any seasoned producer or engineer, after many models and trials they realized the best match was the 'Atlantis FC-387 - a mic originally designed especially for vocals.

Rustici is focusing on developing young artists such as Virginio these days, and loved what the Atlantis mic gave to the production, "I have been using Lauten Audio mics for about 2 years, I often choose them over a lot of other top microphones when I audition mics for a singer. On this session we tried about 6 different microphones and the Atlantis was the best match for Virginio's voice. The mic is very smooth with a nice top end, it gave his voice a lot of body."

Virgino's selfie during the session

The East Bay Recorders sessions have already paid-off with a single released entitled 'Hercules', that is in heavy radio airplay in Italy and is receiving incredible reviews. "A young, talented singer who firmly believes in the values of music, Virginio Simonelli is now ready to climb the charts," said journalist Cinzia Del Prete, upon hearing the new song.

After singing one of his original songs at Italy's most important music festival in 2006, the Sanremo Giovani, Virginio was signed to Universal Music Italy and released his first album. Since then, as a songwriter Virginio has collaborated with Italian star Elisa, and Gary Barlow (Take That), and his song 'Limpido' became a hit duet with Laura Pausini and Kylie Minogue, later followed with his own duet with Pausini on his song 'Dove Resto Solo Io'. Recently he's worked with songwriters Andy Marvel (Celin Dion), Dimitri Ehlirch (Moby), and Jesse Harris (Norah Jones). In 2011, Virginio was the winner of Italy's most popular singing contest TV show, 'Amici'.

Rosen, who has engineered for top artists, across many genres, including Todd Rundgren, Santana, Tesla, Joe Satriani, and Popa Roach, commented on the sessions and the Atlantis microphone, "I choose the Atlantis mic for this vocal because of its super clear and present top and strong body, it provided Virginio with the inspiration and the power that the track needed."

The Atlantis FC-387 microphone was a collaborative effort between Lauten Audio, and New York engineer and producer Fab Dupont. Its Multi-voicing' feature gives recordists three distinct timbre's to choose from with just the flip of a switch. Originally designed for vocals, the Atlantis also shines on acoustic instruments of all types.

Lauten Audio
www.lautenaudio.com

Corrado Rustici
www.corradorustici.com

Michael Rosen, East Bay Recorders
www.michaelsrosen.com

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