PEDRO CANAAN
AUDIO ENGINEER • PRODUCER • MUSICIAN
Hello there!
My name is Pedro Canaan, an audio engineer, music producer and musician from São Paulo (Brazil). My passion for music brought me to Chicago, IL - where I got a scholarship to study Audio Design & Production at Columbia College Chicago 5 years ago. Since then, I had the opportunity to record and produce over 100 songs, connect with amazing artists, work closely with 2 record labels, and intern at magical places such as Electrical Audio and Mystery Street Recording Company.
My deep involvement with audio flourished in me a huge appreciation for all music genres and an avid desire to experiment new things. Each one of the projects I worked on have been a brand new creative journey for me.
All my experience working with such a wide variety of artists makes me ecstatic to be part of your new project. Wherever I am, I will always be eager to capture the most unique sounds and make the craziest ideas become a reality.
MUSIC
ROCK
Credits: producer, recording engineer, mixing engineer, mastering engineer, electric guitar, keyboard
Ghost was the debut single of singer-songwriter Samira Jasmine, and was recorded partially in Chicago and in my studio in São Paulo - Brazil. Probably one of the most musically complex tracks in my portfolio
Credits: producer, recording engineer, mixing engineer, mastering engineer
This was my first song recording directly to a 24-track tape machine and mastering to a 1/4” 2-track reel, with no use of digital converters at any point in the process. Quite tricky tune for a first time, but luckily Saint Romanov’s band was very patient and well rehearsed :)
POP
Credits: producer, recording engineer, mixing engineer, mastering engineer, bass, electric guitar, background vocals
Lips Like Chardonnay was the single for the album "Xeno" by Zeno Camera & The Groovy Motherfunkers. This track - as well as the whole album - was produced, recorded, mixed and mastered by myself, in a quite unorthodox environment: a dorm room. Zeno is a very charismatic singer who was very popular at the college scene in Chicago at that time, so I believe that room ended up being the perfect place to capture the vibe of his performance. Several DIY adaptations were made to fix acoustical problems, and all instruments and vocals were overdubbed.
Credits: producer, recording engineer, mixing engineer, mastering engineer, bass, electric guitar
My personal favorite track off the album 'Xeno'; Pangs is a pop track that mixes several different influences from everybody involved in the production of this record. Intricate lyricism, unusual structure, and a fun rap verse over a baião (traditional swing from north-east of Brazil) rhythm - all in one!
METAL
Credits: producer, audio engineer, mixing engineer, mastering engineer, bass, electric guitar
Billy Boy was the first single by the artist Saint Romanov, and was all recorded in my studio in São Paulo - Brazil, except for vocals, which were recorded in Chicago. I remember being confused about who this Billy Boy guy was when I first listened to the demo. Turns out it is an American folk song, and Romanov was writing about his controversial love for folk and extreme music. Anyway, we are all very proud of how those drums sound.
Credits: producer, mixing engineer, mastering engineer, bass, acoustic guitar
Is this even metal? I don’t know. It does have distorted guitars and screams, so I guess that’s the best bet. We were clearly not very concerned about genres when making that. Everything, everywhere, all at once - just no awards for us, unfortunately.
ACOUSTIC
Credits: producer, mixing engineer, recording engineer
Sunrise is the last track off Drea C's album 'Sol Azul', and it's not really as acoustic as the category may say. You can clearly hear an electric guitar there on your right ear; those strings are all midi. But if Rocket Man is in the Spotify playlist "Classic Acoustic", I should be able to get away with it, right? As the whole album, this song had vocals and acoustic guitar recorded by Drea C herself in Los Angeles, and sent over to me in Brazil for some final touches (things that the pandemic forced us to do).
Credits: producer, recording engineer, mixing engineer, mastering engineer, orchestration
Sistine is a soon to be released single by Saint Romanov, who was kind enough to let me use this track before its release date. This was originally a project for my Analog Studio Recording class at Columbia College Chicago, and we were supposed to do a recording direct to the 2-track 1/4” tape machine. And well, I kinda cheated. There was only one Romanov for 4 cello parts + acoustic guitar + vocal to be recorded into a 2-track tape machine. I ended up recording into the left and right channels separately, and covered up the erase head of the tape machine so he could record one cello part on top of the other. Not exactly what the teacher wanted. Still got an A, though.
INDIE / ALTERNATIVE
Credits: producer, recording engineer, mixing engineer, mastering engineer, bass, electric guitar, keyboard, pan
Described as "grungy pop" by Drea herself, In The Kitchen was the main single off her debut album 'Sol Azul'. For this song, she recorded her vocals by herself in Los Angeles while I did all the instrumental parts at my studio in Brazil. This was one of the richest songs in her album in terms of arrangement, and it was a lot of fun to do: even pans and pots were recorded for percussion, as well as some samples of my own kitchen's sink. Obviously, the shakers were a half-empty dispenser of coarse salt. We were literally in the kitchen cooking this song!
Credits: producer, recording engineer, mixing engineer, mastering engineer, bass, electric guitar
That's a fun one! I don't remember exactly what inspired us to go into this flamenco-psychedelic-rock direction; we were really just having fun and somehow ended up with this track. Medusa is the 8th track off Drea C's debut album 'Sol Azul' and hopefully will make you feel like you're ready to fight a bull in front of a crowd in Madrid. The bull still wins, tho.
HIP HOP
Credits: producer, mixing engineer, mastering engineer
This is a hip-hop track that could be easily put under the metal section. However, it is a great showcase of what I can do within this genre, as I am a big fan of borrowing instrumentats from other genres and merging them with electronic hip-hop beats.
JAZZ
Credits: composer, producer, recording engineer, mixing engineer, mastering engineer, piano
illuminisme is an instrumental jazz track I wrote for the Brazilian band the death season, and was used as an interlude in the album ‘liberté’. Drums, bass, saxophone and trombone were recorded by the members of Big Band EMESP, and the piano was played by myself.
LIVE RECORDING / MIXING
Credits: recording engineer, mixing engineer, mastering engineer
This recording is a live version of the song Forever by Anteeter. It was recorded at the Columbia College Chicago 33 studio, with the band playing live to a small audience. There were no overdubs, and the mixing was made in real time. Since the band was playing to a click and I was already familiar with the structure of the songs, I was able to automate effects for each section of the song individually.
POST
This was a final project for my Applied Audio for Visual Media course at Columbia College Chicago. In this game trailer, I did everything sound related: sound design, soundtrack, and mixing/post. Yes, the robot voice is also mine.
Coordinated the location sound team on set and did all the sound mixing for the web series “Hotbox”
