Rafael Sardina, known professionally as Rafa Sardina, is a

basque Basque may refer to: * Basques, an ethnic group of Spain and France * Basque language, their language Places * Basque Country (greater region), the homeland of the Basque people with parts in both Spain and France * Basque Country (autonomous co ...

mixing engineer A mixing engineer (or simply mix engineer) is responsible for combining ("mixing") different sonic elements of an auditory piece into a complete rendition (also known as "final mix" or "mixdown"), whether in music, film, or any other content of a ...

and

record producer A record producer is a recording project's creative and technical leader, commanding studio time and coaching artists, and in popular genres typically creates the song's very sound and structure. Virgil Moorefield"Introduction" ''The Producer as ...

known for his work with Alejandro Sanz, Luis Miguel, Calle 13, D'Angelo, The Clare Fischer Big Band and

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. Sardina has won 5

Grammy Award The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pr ...

s and 13

Latin Grammy Award The Latin Grammy Awards are an award by The Latin Recording Academy to recognize outstanding achievement in the Latin music industry. The Latin Grammy honors works recorded in Spanish or Portuguese from anywhere around the world that has been ...

s. He is the current governor of the

Recording Academy The Recording Academy (formally the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences; abbreviated NARAS) is an American learned academy of musicians, producers, recording engineers, and other musical professionals. It is famous for its Grammy Aw ...

, Los Angeles Chapter and has served on the board of trustees of the

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. Sardina is a founding member and vice chairman of the Latin Recording Academy's CPI (''Círculo de Productores e Ingenieros''), equivalent to the Producers and Engineers Wing of the Recording Academy. He was the executive producer of the 2017 and 2018

Latin Recording Academy Person of the Year The Latin Recording Academy Person of the Year is an award presented annually by the Latin Recording Academy, the same organization that distributes the Latin Grammy Awards, to commend musicians of Ibero-American heritage for their "artistic ach ...

galas honoring Alejandro Sanz and Maná, respectively.

Early life and career

Sardina was born in

Bermeo Bermeo is a town and municipality in the ''comarca'' of Busturialdea. It is in the province of Biscay, which is part of the autonomous region of the Basque Country in northern Spain. With a population of 16,765, it is the most important fishing ...

, a fishing port in the Basque Country located in northern

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. Sardina's interest in music started at a young age. At the age of 6, he secretly played his younger sister's guitar and later told his mother he wanted to become a professional musician. His parents moved to

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when he was 15. After a couple of months, Sardina returned to Spain, finished school and started playing in bands. His first experience in a recording studio was at the age of 16, when he attended a recording session of his cousin's band in San Sebastián. Sardina joined medical school at age 16. During his second year of school, he started working as front of house and monitor engineer for local acts. During his fourth year of school and right before taking the final exam, Sardina decided to drop out. He saved up for a three-week recording certification program at The Recording Workshop school in Chillicothe, Ohio. Sardina then went back to Spain and continued saving until he enrolled in a program at

Full Sail University Full Sail University is a private for-profit university in Winter Park, Florida. It was formerly a recording studio in Ohio named Full Sail Productions and Full Sail Center for the Recording Arts. The school moved to Florida in 1980 and began ...

in Orlando, Florida. In 1993, four weeks before graduating with a Valedictorian Award, Sardina organized a 24-hour trip to

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...

. He did interviews at Record Plant, Westlake Recording Studios and

Ocean Way Recording Ocean Way Recording was a series of recording studios established by recording engineer and producer Allen Sides with locations in Los Angeles, California, Nashville, Tennessee, and Saint Barthélemy. Ocean Way Recording no longer operates record ...

, where he later started working and became assistant engineer. During his time at Ocean Way, Sardina recorded artists including

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, Madonna, Frank Sinatra,

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, Dr. Dre and

David Foster David Walter Foster (born November 1, 1949) is a Canadian musician, composer, arranger, record producer and music executive who chaired Verve Records from 2012 to 2016. He has won 16 Grammy Awards from 47 nominations. His music career spans mor ...

. In 2001, after working for 5 years at Ocean Way, Sardina founded Fishbone Productions and started working as an independent engineer, recording at his studio "AfterHours". Sardina became better known for his work on Pop,

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, R&B and

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

records, although he also works on a variety of genres including

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Orchestra An orchestra (; ) is a large instrumental ensemble typical of classical music, which combines instruments from different families. There are typically four main sections of instruments: * bowed string instruments, such as the violin, viola, c ...

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and Film/TV soundtracks. He continued working with artists including Alejandro Sanz, Luis Miguel, Stevie Wonder,

Michael Jackson Michael Joseph Jackson (August 29, 1958 – June 25, 2009) was an American singer, songwriter, dancer, and philanthropist. Dubbed the "King of Pop", he is regarded as one of the most significant cultural figures of the 20th century. Over a ...

and D'Angelo. Sardina engineered the album "Symphonic Soweto: A Tribute To Nelson Mandela", which won the South African Music Award for Best Contemporary Album in 2018.

AfterHours Studios

Sardina founded AfterHours Studios to record his projects. AfterHours was first located at his previous house. Sardina describes it as being ''"just a tiny room, tracking little things like drums in the hallway"''. The studio is now located in

Woodland Hills, Los Angeles Woodland Hills is a neighborhood bordering the Santa Monica Mountains in the San Fernando Valley region of Los Angeles, California. Geography Woodland Hills is in the southwestern region of the San Fernando Valley, which is located east of Ca ...

, where he remodeled a two-story three-car garage and an adjacent room. The live room, control room and isolation booth are on the first floor, while an office and a lounge are located on the second floor. The studio operates around a

Solid State Logic Solid State Logic (SSL) is a British company based in Begbroke, Oxfordshire, England that designs and markets audio mixing consoles, signal processors, and other audio technologies for the post-production, video production, broadcast, sound re ...

Duality console and incorporates multiple outboard processors into a digital recording system. The studio was featured on Mix Magazine's Class of 2017.

Awards and nominations

Grammy Awards

Latin Grammy Awards The Latin Grammy Awards are an award by The Latin Recording Academy to recognize outstanding achievement in the Latin music industry. The Latin Grammy honors works recorded in Spanish or Portuguese from anywhere around the world that has been ...

References

External links

Interview with Rafa Sardina , Latin Recording Academy

Pensado's Place #279 , Engineer/Producer/Mixer Rafa Sardina
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sardina, Rafa Grammy Award winners Latin Grammy Award winners Full Sail University alumni Latin music record producers People from Bermeo Spanish record producers Living people 1968 births