Alejandro Rodriguez

Position
Professor
Telephone
617-747-3181

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Alejandro Rodriguez is a professor in the Music Production and Engineering (MP&E) Department at Berklee College of Music, with more than 20 years of experience as a recording, editing, mixing, mastering, post-production, and live sound engineer and producer. He has worked with artists such as Mariah Carey, Compay Segundo, Eliades Ochoa and Afro-Cuban All Stars (from Buena Vista Social Club), Silvio Rodriguez, Pablo Milanés, J.M. Vitier, Grupo Niche, Armando Manzanero, Ricardo Arjona, Pancho Céspedes, and Tania Libertad.

Before joining Berklee, Rodriguez was an acoustics professor at the National School of Arts (ENA) and a professor of sound studies at Instituto Superior de Artes (ISA)—both in Havana, Cuba. He has taught audio and recording techniques at the Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores in Monterrey, México. Alejandro worked as a staff engineer for EGREM Studios in Havana, Cuba, and has since pursued a freelance career as an engineer and producer. He holds a Bachelor of Music degree from ENA and a Bachelor of Arts in Communication (specializing in sound for film, radio, and television) degree from ISA. In addition, he studied telecommunication engineering at the Technical University in Havana and recording techniques at the Supraphon Recording Faclities in Prague, Czech Republic.

Career Highlights
  • Freelance studio and live sound engineer
  • Recording engineer for Andrew L. Webber's Jesus Christ Superstar, Mexican cast
  • For Jarocho, recording and mixing engineer for the album; front-of-house engineer and sound designer for the musical
  • Sound designer, post production and mixing, Hernan Cortés: Historia de una Conquista (Discovery Latin America)
  • Record, mix, master, or live sound for Compay Segundo, Eliades Ochoa and the Afro-Cuban All Stars (from Buena Vista Social Club), Silvio Rodriguez, Pablo Milanés, Carlos Varela, Grupo Niche, Armando Manzanero, Ricardo Arjona, Pancho Céspedes, Tania Libertad, and Tiempo Libre
Education
  • B.A., Instituto Superior de Artes
  • B.M., National School of Arts
  • Master's equivalent degree, Instituto Superior Politecnico Jose A. Echeverria
In Their Own Words

"In mixing classes we talk about technology, but we talk and discuss a lot about the musicality of the mix and the concepts of our listening—not only which knob was pressed or which equipment was better, although we talk about equipment and we sometimes compare one and the other. But mostly we talk about general concepts. I encourage the musical part of it, and I expect students to be wide-range people. They can specialize in something, but they should be ready to do as many different genres or different jobs as possible."

"If I have to summarize the typical MP&E student, that might be somebody who is not only an engineer but a producer. In the old-fashioned way, producers were only musicians who had the skill and the musical knowledge to arrange and to direct a production, and then they didn't know much about the engineering side of it. Now the whole process is mixed. A producer sometimes is an engineer who also is a musician."

"The big advantage of being here is to have the ability to try different types of technology—not only the latest one but the original ones at the same time. Not only the most expensive microphone but a cheap one and lots of them in between. The fact that I started my career in a third-world country and lived in another third-world country for several years gave me the perspective of being forced to work only with limited resources most of the time, trying to be creative with whatever you have, not whatever you would like to have."