Alvaro Alencar

Multiple latin grammy-winning mixer, producer & engineer. Born in Hong Kong in 1968. Alvaro Alencar has over 140 records in his career spanning 20+ years. In this time he has won 13 Latin Grammy Awards, over 25 Latin Grammy nominations, over 30 platinum or gold certificates for CD and DVD sales, which total approximately 10 million units sold. His mixing, tracking and production skills brought him invitations to contribute to the work of top artists in Brazil, as well as from many other countries in Latin America, Europe and the U.S., such as Maria Rita, Gilberto Gil, Lenine and Skank (Brazil), Los Bacilos and Jorge Villamizar (US), Congreso (Chile), Andres Cepeda and Jorge Celedon (a duets project with star guests Shakira, Marco Antonio Solis and Luis Enrique) (Colombia), and Brendan Adams (South Africa). A multi-cultural upbringing both geographical and musical taught Alvaro how to listen to music and its so many different "accents" in ways that make him at home in just as many styles and variations. Add to this Alvaro's fluency in English, Spanish, French, Portuguese and bits of German and Italian, and you find in him a producer/mixer that navigates with pleasure the different rhythms and emotions he encounters in projects from all corners of the globe. Throughout the years of travel and recording, Alvaro developed his technical preferences for sound recording and mixing, a path that also got him involved as a technical consultant for several studios in Europe and South America. Always looking to optimize the artist’s comfort in the recording process all the while maintaining a strict control over sound quality, Alvaro’s set-up and preferences include a judicious combination of classic analog mic-pres and outboard, high quality converters for DAWs and top analog summing amps (Neve, SSL or Manley). Given the ever growing restraints in music production budgets consequent to deep market and technology changes affecting the whole of the music industry, Alvaro's keen sense of what matters to maintain a high level of sound quality in music is most valuable to any production. Besides technical and musical abilities of the highest level, two strong characteristics allow Alvaro to excel in the projects he gets involved with. The first is Alvaro's ability to perceive artists' and executives' particular needs in a way that is constructive and comforting for all. The second is his capacity to adapt and improvise while maintaining the highest production values. Alvaro's commitment to the productions he contributes to are felt by peers and clients as an assurance of success. Today Alvaro operates from his base studio in New York, Musa NY, as well as from his Rio de Janeiro based production company, China House. And as the itch to travel and develop his trade never ceases, working in the artist's home ground is always a welcome experience.