“I decided to learn it myself and make the most of those lessons.”
Since moving to southern California from Venice, Italy in his early 20s, Stef Moro has been a fixture behind-the-scenes of the city’s hip-hop and pop music recording scenes, working alongside mainstays like Kayne West, Chris Brown, Travis Scott, TY Dolla $, and more. Currently operating out of homebase StudioBeat3, the Grammy-nominated audio engineer has kept incredibly busy building up his portfolio while simultaneously parlaying his success into new opportunities for up-and-coming engineers and artists who pass through the doors of his studio. Moro sat down for an interview and informational session with Mojave Audio to talk about his techniques for recording hip-hop vocals alongside artist Fresh and using his favourite new microphone, the Mojave Audio MA-1000.
Rising out of the DIY music scenes of northern Italy, Moro found himself putting together his own studio setups and recording bands before he was out of his teens. A burning desire to learn and a lack of access to traditional audio production schooling led him to jump straight into the action and forge a path driven by his own passion.
“The infrastructure to learn recording techniques that exists now was simply not available then,” he explains. “If you weren’t able to move south or to a major recording school in the UK or the United States, there simply weren’t many options.”
“I decided to learn it myself and make the most of those lessons.”
Moro’s persistence paid off when he won a mixing contest at the NAMM show, leading him to visit and eventually relocate to Los Angeles to join the music industry. Working hard led to high-profile work with some of hip-hop’s best and brightest, and ultimately to build his latest studio in Pasadena – StudioBeat3. “It really came down to getting involved and being willing to learn and grow each day,” he says. “As my career progressed, there were more opportunities to build something of my own and in doing that, the desire to pass down what I’ve learned to people trying to get started for themselves.”
Moro currently brings a lot of interns into his studios, where the bug to teach and pass on his knowledge has become infectious. A personal favourite topic? Microphones and microphone selection. The latest of which is the focus of his interview with Mojave Audio, the MA-1000. “The MA-1000 sits so well in a mix and has such an incredibly controlled sound,” he explains. “Many new microphones are too bright and often can sound harsh. The MA-1000 has a lot of warmth and depth and can apply so well to so many different kinds of voices.”
“It’s such a great microphone for hip-hop, and because it’s a brand new model instead of something vintage, I know we can use it, abuse it, bring it on the road, and it’s going to work great.”
Keep reading about the MA-1000 here at Mojave Audio.
