In this page I’ll show you my gears

First of all, I’m not a sound engineer, what I use comes from my experience and is the result of a lot of live gigs and experiments done in these years.

For my studio session I work with my "historic" sound engineer, my long time brother Piero Villa from Rumore Bianco Studio, a perfect support for all my crazy music ideas.

Here is my live set.

Starting from microphones (the most important tool for any singer), since summer 2010 I'm a Blue mic endorser. I bought my first Blue mic (The Ball) in 2003 and, since then, I've fallen in love with these incredible mics! At the moment I’ve got 13 microphones, all different and useful in different circumstances. Here is the list:

  • A 2010 BLUE (Baltic Latvian Universal Electronics) Encore 300. My live set mic. An incredible sound with a hand selected capsule tuned for stunning detail and powerful vocals. Absolutely better then everything else. No way!!
  • A 2010 BLUE (Baltic Latvian Universal Electronics) BOTTLE . The Bottle is Blue's flagship recording tool and its highest achievement in quality and innovation. The Bottle combines low noise and superb transient response integrated with a system of interchangeable capsules, the Bottle Caps.The Bottle is the definition of craftsmanship, with hand-assembled custom components found throughout
  • A 2003 BLUE (Baltic Latvian Universal Electronics) THE BALL. A great blue ball mic from a crazy and creative designer. This is the first dynamic mic with a 48 volt power supply, an innovative concept and a great and warmth sound.
  • A 2005 BLUE (Baltic Latvian Universal Electronics) BLACK BALL. The condenser version of the Blue Ball. Great and real sound with clear high tones and very deep and warmth low tones.
  • A 2006 BLUE (Baltic Latvian Universal Electronics) WHITE BALL. The USB version of Ball series.
  • A 2008 BLUE (Baltic Latvian Universal Electronics) BABY BOTTLE. A great condenser studio mic with a fantastic vintage sound. My release titled BIOCOSMOPOLITAN (out in autumn 2010) has been INTERELY RECORDED with this amazing mic
  • A 1988 Electrovoice N/D 757B (my first professional mic. Great for rock-funk performances)
  • A 1999 Electrovoice N/D 767 (the same)
  • A 1998 Amfon BL-920 (a very rare condenser handmade mic built in Norway, a great tool for acoustic sets)
  • A 2001 Neumann KMS 105 (Probably the best mic brand ever. Amazing!!! A must for every acoustic set)
  • An handmade mic realized in 2002 on my request by a great italian technician with the body of an old ’50 Shure steel mic and an Electrovoice N/D 767 capsule. Great appeal and good sound
  • An original 1940 Electrovoice/Philco V-1 Velocity Microphone (A real jewel!!! A unique item!! An all original ribbon microphone. A present I bought in 2002 in MAUI, Hawaii, from a crazy collector).
  • A 2006 ELECTROVOICE RAVEN. A mic with a great vintage look, cardioid, an incredible sound with beautiful deep and warmth low tones.

I use to connect all mics into the legendary microphone preamp Robbie from Blue Mic and a Universal Audio M 610 to add warmth and colour to my signal. From these mic pres my signal sometimes goes through a Lexicon MPX1.

I use the Lexicon MPX 1 because I think is absolutely the best live reverb machine in commerce!!!

I love to experiment different sounds on my voice. For this reason, during my live set (solo or with a band) I use some or all of these stuff: a Boomerang III Phrase Sampler pedal-looper. This great looper, built in Texas, is a great help to create rhythmic and harmonic loops. After this looper, the signal goes through an original seventies vintage Vox wha, a great help to massacre the pure sound of voice. This pedal works together with a Carl Martin tremolo pedal called Surf Trem, with a great sixties vintage sound, and the historic Electro Harmonix Little Big Muff. I've bought an Eventide Timefactor, a fantastic delay stompbox. Thanx to Zackary Vex precious suggestions, I own a Z-Vex Fuzz Factory that gives to my voice a very interesting fuzz compression.

Since november 2014 I'm endorser of the legendary brand Eventide, I use two Eventide H9, extraordinaire high quality signal processors plenty of possible customizations like no other pedals today on business

Last but not least, in my avant-garde gigs, the signal that comes from my case goes through the Korg Kaoss Pad, a multieffect-vocoder that create incredibile, crazy sounds!!! A real kaoss connected to an Alesis Air Fx. To control all these different signals I use a small Bose ToneMatch mixer and all cablatures are different for different stage set!

I’m sure a lot of you are now curious to hear personally what I’m writing!!! So, what are you waitin’ for?? Let’s come and listen to my gigs!!!

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