Author Interview: Yio

This week in our series of interviews of AudioJungle authors, we meet…

Yio (Sergio Schnitzler)

1. Tell us a little bit about yourself. Where are you from, what do you do for a living?

I’m from Rosario, Argentina. I’m a cable TV technician, but from childhood I was involved in arts and technology, sometimes constructing analog synthesizers, other times painting, taking pictures and so on.

2. How long have you been composing music and what got you started producing?

Even if I’m not a virtuoso piano player, my hands were on my father’s piano from childhood—playing with notes, making experiments directly on its strings, and looking for new sounds, melodies and effects.

I’m 41 years old so you can get an idea.

3. Do you play any instruments? Do you have any formal music training?

I play guitar and keyboards. I studied music teaching including guitar, piano, percussion, choir, harmony, music notations, etc. I also attended seminars and courses about MIDI, computing, electronic music, painting, photography and cinema.

I studied electronic engineering, about half of the career.

4. Could you describe to us your home studio and the equipment and software you typically use to produce audio?

Today I perform music with virtual synthesizers, but I also own:

• an Ensoniq ASR-10 sampler and other vintage sound modules
• a 16 channel Mackie mixer
• DSP modules
• microphones
• a Washburn steel guitar
• and a PC.

I like to work most of the time with Cakewalk Sonar and Cool Edit.

5. Could you tell us a bit about how you typically compose and then produce your audio? Describe your creative process.

Sometimes I put on some generic groove, and start playing guitar or testing a lot of synthesizers presets until a melody is taking form. Then I make a recording and complete the spectrum by adding a bass line, pads, sequences, effects, etc.

6. What genre of music do you enjoy producing for and why?

Soundtrack, downtempo, electronic, chillout, and cinematic. It all comes from my inner man.

7. What kind of things inspire you to create music? Do you have any musical influences?

I’m inspired by feelings, thoughts, and playing with sounds.

I’m influenced by:

• Jean Michel Jarre
• Depeche Mode
• Paul Oakenfold
• Pink Floyd
• Mike Oldfield
• Dr. Alban
• Alan Parsons Project
• Yazoo
• Delerium
• Charly Garcia (Argentine)
• Giorgio Moroder
• Vangelis
• Moby
• Faithless.

8. What genres of music do you listen to in your spare time? Do you have any favorite bands or artists?

I listen to chillout, new age, lounge, electronic, and progressive.

My favorites are:

• Jens Gad
• Paul Oakenfold
• Chronos Project (DJ Shankar-Nick Klimenko)
• Moby
• Chicane
• Faithless
• Delerium
• Tangerine Dream
• Yngwie Malmsteen
• Deep Purple
• Achillea
• Torsten Stenzel
• Ray Lynch
• Suzanne Doucet
• Porcupine tree.

9. What is your advice to other AudioJungle authors regarding how to create a successful portfolio of audio?

Create thirty and sixty second loop-ready versions of all your songs, and create audio logos and stingers from them. Mute the vocal/lyrics tracks, add some melody so you will have instrumental versions too.

Keep all sounds clean from the beginning of the creative process—discard problematic sounds and use filters to enhance the desired frequencies and eliminate annoying sounds. Use different stereo panning for leads, pads, sequences and drums, but keep the bass drum (kick), bass line and lead vocals centered.

10. What do you do to market your AudioJungle files?

I use precise keywords, show related or complementery items, put similar items into groups, use bookmarks, and categories.

I take a look at what kind of items are best sellers—from me and others authors—then I focus on creating more from that and search into my compositions library for similar songs.

11. What are your three favorite tracks in your AudioJungle portfolio and why do you like them?

Martyr

I like this track because I play the guitar, and the song has a very sensitive mood and increasing textures because of the way the guitar and synthesizers are mixed.

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Remembering

This is a favorite because of its positive and quiet mood.

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Finding Answers

I like this track because of its changing mood from mysterious to buoyant.

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12. Apart from yourself, who is your favorite AudioJungle author and why do you like them?

Djulo, because their song Lament of a Fairy captivates me.

13. If you could change anything about AudioJungle, what would it be?

I would improve the related item tab: it currently makes no sense. I would increase the keyword limit: visitors use a lot of phrases and words to search for a mood or style. And I also think a non-exclusive author’s commission percentage should increase as sales volume increases.

14. Could you tell us about some of your audio projects outside of AudioJungle? What have been some of your biggest audio successes so far?

I have created some techno pop songs, that you can listen at Amie Street or yio.com.ar/music. You can also visit my Audio/MIDI portal for spanish speaking people at yio.com.ar.

15. When you aren’t busy creating music, what do you like to do in your spare time?

I love photography (see my photos at yio.com.ar/photos and picasaweb.google.com/sergiofsch/YIO) and image editing.

View / listen to Yio’s AudioJungle portfolio.