Meet Oscar Zambrano

We recently connected with Oscar Zambrano and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, so we’re so thrilled to have Oscar with us today – welcome and maybe we can jump right into it with a question about one of your qualities that we most admire. How did you develop your work ethic? Where do you think you get it from?

I get my work ethic from my parents. From the begging they instilled a work/life balance. They always said, you have to work hard if you want to play hard. Both my parents are artists. My father was a photographer / explorer and travelled the world taking pictures. My mother is a jeweler / sculptor and has shown her pieces around the world. With both my parents being involved in the arts, it felt pretty normal to get into music. There is never a fixed schedule which can be a challenge to plan things. Fortunately, my early exposure to this kind of life style really helped navigate this. The one thing I really learned from my parents is, once you say yes to something, you give it your all no matter what the circumstances.

Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?

I was born and raised in Mexico City. I was always interested in music since I was young. Around my sophomore year in high-school, some friends and I formed a band. We did well enough to scrape enough money and recorded and album. Little did I know this would have such a big impact on my life. It would be my first time in a recording studio and I fell in love with engineering. I decided that I wanted to become and recording engineer and applied to Berklee College of Music in Boston. I took a keen interest on mastering, the last stage of a record before it goes out to the world. After graduating from Music Production and Engineering, I was fortunate to find a job as a runner for a recording studio in New York called Sound On Sound. This is where my career as an engineer started. I started to freelance as a mastering engineer and decided to start my own little studio called Zampol Productions. 20 years later, Zampol is busier than ever working on thousands of songs a year.
Two things that stick out about mastering is that I always get to hear the final product before it’s released and I’m able to work on different genres on a weekly basis.

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

One of the skills I never really thought you needed until I started working as a mastering engineer is the ability to make people feel comfortable and taken care of. You can have amazing skills but if the artist does not feel comfortable working with you they won’t want to come back. The other very important thing to remember is there is always room to learn a lot more, especially with technology changing at such as fast pace. Never be afraid to ask questions no matter how “basic” things seem.

The advice I have for somebody thats is just starting out is to say yes to anything that comes along. Not only will you learn something new, you will create new opportunities for future work.

Alright so to wrap up, who deserves credit for helping you overcome challenges or build some of the essential skills you’ve needed?

My friends and fellow colleagues have been extremely important in my career. They are the ones I rely on when I’m having imposter syndrome, questions about how things sound or even just a second opinion. I’m fortunate to have a group of engineers whom I can ask anything with out worrying what they think.
They also push me to be a better engineer and I hope they feel the same way about me.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.zampolproductions.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/zampolproductions/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/oscar-zambrano-1945a24/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@ZampolProductions