LIVE SOUND Recording Studio

Exclusive Interview with Alex Aizenberg for IN-4M Alternative Media.

We sit down for a deep and personal conversation with Alex Aizenberg at his Live Sound Recording Studio. Together, we dive into his past, the early beginnings of his musical journey, and the defining moments that shaped him as an artist and creator. At this point of time Alex marking nearly 45 years of continuous work in the music industry – both in Israel and internationally. Today, he is entering an exciting new chapter with The VINYL LAB, the creative production project of Vinyl Records, bringing forward a fresh, clean, and distinctive musical vision. This interview bridges past, present, and future – an honest conversation about inspiration, dedication, creativity, and the power of music to transform lives.

This episode was originally recorded in Hebrew. This version provides the English translation.

My sincere gratitude to Tomasz Solinski for his outstanding filming and editing work.

David: Hello everyone, and welcome to IN4MAL TALK. On our journey toward improving mood and increasing motivation, we meet artists who live their creativity day by day. I’m David Wolf, and today we’re at the Live Sound Recording Studio, a creative home of Alex Aizenberg.

Alex is a professional guitarist, sound technician, and music producer who turned his studio in Karmiel into a meeting place for many artists and music creators. In this interview, we will dive together deep into Alex’s personal journey. We’ll talk about how it all began, about current projects, and about the vision for the future.

So, let’s begin, Alex. Please interduce yourself to those who don’t know you.

Alex: First of all, hello to you, hello to the whole team. Thank you for inviting me to speak on your program. It’s a pleasure to host you here and a pleasure to show my studio.

I’m Alex Aizenberg. In two weeks from now, I’ll be 60. I’ve been active since the age of 15 – almost 45 years of work. Many years, lots of equipment, lots of work, lots of records, lots of music. And hopefully this will be an interesting interview, one that people will enjoy hearing about the life of a musician in Israel and also outside of Israel.

Beautiful. So, let’s go back in time and talk about how it all began.

It started when I was around 9 or 10 years old. We were at a New Year’s Eve family gathering. My uncle had a guitar. This was still in the Soviet Union. He had a seven-string guitar. He played a little bit, just casually, and it fascinated me so much. I was mesmerized as a kid. I said, “Wow, I have to play.” So, my father spoke with my uncle and said, “He has two, I’ll arrange it, so he’ll give him one as a gift.” And that’s how he brought me a guitar – a seven-string guitar from Russia. Not the seven-string guitars of today – the old-style seven-string. Acoustic, with metal strings very high above the fretboard.

And I just started playing. I didn’t know anything, didn’t know how to do it. But we had some kids in the neighbourhood downstairs who were already playing guitar. When I approached them, I said, “Let me try to play.” They showed me two or three accords. And that’s how I started playing. I think I played five or six hours a day. My fingers were bleeding. It was hard to play, but I wanted it so much. I played and played, and so on. And little by little I started to progress like that – someone taught me something, someone else taught me something – and that’s how I started to play.

Did you reach the point where you began to study professionally?

Yes, that was much later. It’s a very long story, but later I also began to study professionally. But in the beginning, I learned everything on my own – from friends and all sorts of people. And then we came to Israel. My father told me, “We’re going to Israel, you’ll play there, I’ll buy you an electric guitar.” They bought it in Russia, and we brought it here. It was a catastrophic guitar, but it was the first guitar I had, and that’s how I started playing, progressing, looking forward.

Did the band start here?

The band started here, yes. I was very young.

How did you get together?

At school, I met a few guys here, and we were all on the same level. We liked to play a little guitar, and you know – young kids, I don’t know, around 12 or so – and we started playing, learning. And it started with the fact that all the guys really loved rock music. In my time – Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Deep Purple, all those bands we grew up on. That’s the music that influenced us a lot, and it stayed with us, like a stamp.

And I have a good childhood friend, Aaron Friedman, who also used to play with me. He played bass, I played guitar, and we used to get together all the time, and slowly, as youngsters…

Did you have a place to practice?

No, we didn’t. We practiced at home. The neighbours listened to good music – whether they liked it or not wasn’t really their choice most of the time. And there was one time, someone from the municipality came up to us and said, “Kids, let’s give them a little practice room, to practice for an hour a week.” And that’s how it started and continued.

When did you write something?

The first track – we were teenagers, around 15 – we were called “Trans.” It’s not trance music, but we were called Trans.

Before the Trance music came out

Yes, long before. We played heavy rock. We wrote a few original songs, and we decided to record an album. We went to Tel Aviv, to the famous Eshel Studios, that recording studio still exists. But back then they recorded with Sarah Le Sharon… We came to them as a rockers, they’re didn’t know how to deal with us.

Luckily, Yoav Kutner was there. Yoav Kutner is one of the biggest, most legendary music critics in Israel. And he heard us and get pretty excited. He said, “If you have a ready demo, bring it, say this and that.” We didn’t have money for an album, so we recorded only four tracks. We gave him a broadcast tape, and he played it.

He played it on the radio, and…

And it caught on?

Yes, it caught on. We had a song called There Is No Love Without Disappointment. It was a breakthrough. Yes – we were kids, you know, 15–16, and suddenly they played us on the radio. Our heads flew, you know – we were blown away by all of it.

I can imagine the feeling…

Yes, and that’s more or less how it was. And then, at that time, there was the Roxan club in Tel Aviv – very, very famous, the kind all the rock bands performed in. So, we played there a few times.

And then something very interesting happened: they organized Youth City in Tel Aviv. They held auditions for several bands to see who could perform on that stage. The people who ran the auditions were some big names: Dani Bassan and Yair Nitzani former Tislam.

We were accepted. They were pretty excited about us. There were ten bands there: us – Trans, HeChavarria Shel Natasha, the band Cain, and a few others. HaChaverim Shel Natasha actually came out of that event – that performance is what launched them.

The first prize was: the band that wins first place gets to record a broadcast single. So we received a broadcast single – to record. But HaChaverim Shel Natasha received an album, a full contract, basically. We were singing in English at the time, more hard rock, less mainstream. But because we were good, they gave us a broadcast single.

HaChaverim Shel Natasha signed their contract there, and from that moment they became HaChaverim Shel Natasha. Arkadi is a very talented guy, everyone knows him, no need to explain and we are still in touch today, we have a very good relationship, he’s a talented artist.

So that was basically the beginning.

How did you get to the album “The Aliens” and the whole thing around it?

That started much later. First of all, The Aliens was a trio that I put together at a much later stage. This was already after I had my studio and I was producing. It was a lineup that came much later – three musicians, each very professional, experienced in production, albums, recording sessions – who united to create instrumental music. – not songs. Because each of us participates in albums, works with many artists who sing and record songs, and we wanted to express ourselves.

Who gave the names to the tracks?

All of us together – the three of us. Between the Silence -that came from Segev, the drummer. Biologic Madness – that came mostly from me.Light of Darkness also came from me. And Breakeven – that was Segev. And Storyteller’s Edict – all of us together thought of names that fit the atmosphere of the music. And that’s how it was. That’s The Aliens album.

Let’s go back to the studio. How did the studio begin?

The studio actually began with the recordings of that very same album I told you about, from when we were teenagers. We came to a studio, and we didn’t know how to explain what we wanted. And rock/metal in Israel at that time was like… you know, as if a UFO landed here. No one knew how to deal with rock/metal. They didn’t know how to record distortion, they didn’t know how to record those heavy guitar sounds.

And I tried to explain to the producer what we needed, to the sound engineer – what kind of sound to give us. He tried, he did something, but it wasn’t that. And every time it bothered me inside. I told myself; I have to learn this part so that I will know how to do it myself.

So I went and bought equipment for home – there were no computers like today. We’re talking about tape machines, about reels. I bought a system like that, it was a system from the 70s, from a company called ASCAM, with reels, and a mixer attached together – eight tracks that came as a single workstation. And I said, wow, that fits me perfectly.

And then I started sitting at home, recording myself, learning, experimenting. Then I bought a drum machine – Alesis started releasing different drum modules.

And that’s how it started. Slowly, from home. I started recording, buying another device, more equipment, another piece of gear, another microphone, another effect unit…

So, you’re like infected by it. Once you’re infected, you’re inside. And it becomes a bottomless pit – you keep buying more equipment, another microphone, another piece of gear, another something, and another something… And slowly, I saw that this was becoming much more serious for me. So, I decided to leave the house and make a proper, professional studio.

I rented a place in the Krayot, it was called FM Studios – that was my first studio. I think it was a very beautiful studio. It actually started as a rehearsal room. A rehearsal room with a small recording studio inside. Meaning, people would come when they didn’t have a place to practice – because a band can’t rehearse at home, you need a space.

So it started as a rehearsal room – very organized, very good – with a pretty modest studio, just with the equipment I had back then. And little by little, in that studio I brought in more equipment, and more gear, another mixer, more tape machines – the Studer-type machines, you know. We brought in a Neumann microphone, and all the more professional equipment came in, and came in… and then the studio became very, very serious. And in the north, it really picked up traction – people started coming, bands came. It became a kind of music hub.

Then we moved to Karmiel. Raffi and I opened a studio in Karmiel. It was a great studio, and we worked a lot. From there, Raffi moved to the US, and I continued to work there. Then I opened the studio you saw, the Light Sound Studio. It was a big one. It was about three hundred square meters. There were a lot of rooms and a lot of equipment. From there, not only as a technician and a guitarist, but as a music producer, I started to produce albums for artists, to work with new artists, less-known artists, more-known artists.

What does a day in a recording studio look like?

The day starts early with a cup of coffee. You arrive at the studio, and you need your quiet time for about half an hour before people come in with drums and noise and the chaos of recording. Even though it always seems like a studio is all quiet and intimate, yeah? But in a studio, there’s a lot of noise too. When you’re working, setting up equipment, people arriving, talking, guitar amps – each musician has their own thing – and until everyone gets their sound done.

But the day actually starts before the recording session. You arrive at the studio and start preparing equipment. You go over the technical setup.

You turn everything on?

Of course. The studio has to be fully on and working, because you never know what you’ll need during the recording – what equipment you’ll need, what system. You turn everything on and start working.

There are also devices that run on tubes – tubes need to warm up for about half an hour until they reach their proper sound. So, you just turn everything on, sit with a coffee, go through the technical plan – what you’re going to record: drums, microphones, what gets connected, what gets set.

You start preparing the studio for work. Meaning, if there are acoustic drums, that’s between 12 and 15 microphones, depending, takes many channels on the mixer. You connect everything – connect the bass guitar, connect the guitar amp. If there are keyboards, then you prepare everything related to the keyboards.

And that’s it – the day begins when the band arrives, the artist, the group. You drink coffee together, talk – what they want, how they want it… That’s if it’s a new band you don’t know yet.

You go into the work, you start recording… each person is recorded separately. It’s all done in a very, very organized way. And if it’s a band that you already know and have been working with for many years, or if I’m the musical producer of the project – and many times I do the musical production – meaning, I come and decide, I sit with the people in rehearsals, listen to their material and say: “Guys, here we need to tighten this up, this part won’t work, here we need to do it this way, here we need to do it like that.”

So, it’s much easier for me, because I’m the producer. I already know ahead of time what I’m going to record. I prepare the studio for what I need – not only for the band, but also for myself. I’m part of it; I’m like a musician in the band. Not that I play – when I produce them, I’m one of the musicians because I know exactly where the band needs to go. That’s how it usually works in the studio.

A very important thing – a very important detail – is the atmosphere in the studio.

The atmosphere in the studio is usually very serious, quiet. You’ve noticed, we’re filming now in the morning, but here it feels like night. Everything is dark, everything has calm lighting. And that’s it, that’s how it works: there is a quiet atmosphere, everyone is calm. You must – must give a person a sense of comfort. They need to be in a very comfortable place in order to bring out of themselves… you know, artists. To express themselves. Yes, they’re artists, they make art, they need to convey emotion.

When you go to a show, you watch a performance, you see the artist in front of you. It’s easy for you to understand if he’s excited or not – you see him. But when you listen to music at home, you don’t see the artist. Meaning, through the music you need to feel his excitement. And everyone wants to feel secure. Exactly – because it’s not such a simple position, because a person has to enter the zone. With the headphones, the microphones… you know, he has to enter it. The atmosphere must be very, very quiet.

How important is the acoustics?

Hundreds – hundreds (very).

Can you reach a high level with equipment only?

No. You must have acoustics because you’re working with very sensitive microphones, and there are reflections in the room. The room must be treated. Without acoustics, it sounds very, very bad.

Some people record at home with conditions that are not real conditions – you can hear it. But a studio that respects itself, that works professionally, must be acoustically treated – it’s a must. There’s no way around it, no way to skip it.

Okay, you’ve recorded all the instruments, the vocals – how do you approach the mix?

Good. When we have all the material, first of all we sit down – let’s say we’re working as a team – before moving into the mix, we all sit together and listen to the material we have.

We pull all the faders down, everything down, and then we start working. Usually, we begin with the rhythm section. It’s not a rule, but most mixers in the studio start with the rhythm section. The rhythm section is drums and bass – that’s the engine, the heartbeat, right?

We begin by working on the drum sound. There are many microphones, so you need to clean things up, organize everything, get the drums sounding right. Then we add the bass guitar, so it already starts to feel good.

“Clean up” means removing the unwanted noise?

Look, there are mic bleed issues – not noise. Noise doesn’t exist in the studio; everything is quiet, everything has to run without noise. But you have bleed. You have 14–15 microphones in the room. Let’s say you’re playing the drums – this microphone picks up this tom, and another microphone catches that tom, and another one catches the snare. So, you cut, you remove what shouldn’t be there, so the drums will sound clean, beautiful, with a proper drum sound. And then we start adding the bass guitar. The framework gives space to the keyboards, guitars, vocals – you can hear everything.

Which software do you use?

– In my studio right now, I work with Cubase.

Cubase.

– Yes, Cubase…

I’ve heard of Logic, Pro Tools…

– There’s Logic, Pro Tools, yes. I know how to work very well on Pro Tools and on Cubase. Cubase – I’m really an expert in it. I worked with Pro Tools for many years.

Pro Tools used to work on Macintosh, based on Macintosh systems. Cubase worked on PC. Today both can run on both systems, but that’s how it started: Pro Tools was built originally for Macintosh, and Cubase was for PC.

And today I’ve already been working with Cubase for ten years. It’s a very advanced, very intuitive software, and I really enjoy it.

Everyone works with what they’re used to. Logic is an excellent program, Pro Tools is an excellent program - all of these softwares are super professional, and it’s all fine. Anyone who works well with them can achieve great results. Each person just sticks to what they’re comfortable with.

What are plugins?

You see all these devices here - all the gear? Plugins are digital versions of these. These are the real analog units, but the hardware is extremely expensive. These three devices alone cost around 40,000 shekels. It’s very, very expensive equipment.

You mentioned equalizers - what’s the difference between an equalizer, a mixer, and an audio interface?

The audio interface is the sound card - the unit that records audio and transfers it into the computer. An equalizer also exists inside a mixer.A mixer is a device that blends and routes sound - everything passes through it.

Today, you don’t have to use a mixer. You can work entirely inside Cubase, completely “in the box,” using only the computer. But if you have a mixer like this one, the sound quality is much better.And if you also have external analog hardware - then it’s even better.

I won’t go into all the theory now, but there is a difference between analog and digital. Not in the sense of “analog is better” or “digital is better” - that’s not true. Nothing is better or worse. Everything is good. It all depends on what you’re doing and why.

How do you choose when to use analog?

I always use analog. I record into the computer - that part is digital - but on the way in, before it reaches the computer, I always go through analog gear. Analog adds a bit more width. Its range, its warmth, is a bit bigger than digital. That’s why we try to pass through analog equipment, to feed as much information as possible into the digital system.

Of course, once it’s in the computer and I’m working inside the computer, it’s digital. That means we inevitably lose something along the way.

When we go back to mixing, I run the signal again through analog devices to bring back that wider, fuller sound. Not everyone can do that. Someone who works completely in-the-box doesn’t have that option.

Just like I work here with analog equipment and an analog mixer, the sound can pass back through analog again, and then the sound becomes… it brings back that analog width.

How important is it to study in this field?

Wow… listen, you’re always learning. I’m still learning - I’ve been in this field for more than 40 years - and I’m still learning. In music you always learn. And I’ll tell you something: you might think that in the studio you’ve already seen everything, and I’ve seen everything - people crying, whatever you can imagine - because the studio sees it all. And every time someone comes along who surprises you again. You don’t see everything; you learn each time how to work with them.

But in terms of sound - technology is always advancing. I was lucky, yes, I was lucky to go through everything: from tape reels… through A-data, real tape recording… then digital formats came in - A-data, which used video cassettes, then A-data with those small video cassettes, and DATs, those little tape machines. I went through all the formats, all the formats until computers arrived.

And the computer - it stabilized things, and it’s already been helping for about 20 years in the field, working and everything. So today, even with a computer, everything is already pretty stable. But you keep learning - technology keeps advancing, something new always comes out, something new comes out every time…

Let’s talk about the courses you provide and the teachings behind them.

I'm teaching sound and Cubase courses. Today there are many home studios, many young musicians - and not only young ones. Because computers entered the field, which is great, right? Every musician can now have a small studio at home. But a musician is a musician - he knows how to play. He doesn’t necessarily know technology, so they don’t know how to maintain or manage all this, right? It’s amazing - I explain everything to them and teach them.

What do they get in the course?

Anyone who studies Cubase learns how to use Cubase, the software… and beyond the software, he learns how to properly connect and use an audio interface, which cables to use - that’s very important. How to connect a microphone, how to record a microphone at home, how to record a guitar.

Do you also teach them about soldering and repairs?

Less so, because they don’t have the kind of studios that require it, you know. They just buy an interface, connect USB, a guitar cable or a microphone cable. I explain to them the importance of different cables, how to record correctly. But I don’t pressure them with soldering work.

How important to know providing solutions on the spot?

Very important - because problems always happen during recording. If something goes wrong, it always happens during the session. And with all this equipment, you need to very quickly decide what to do and where the problem is.

It’s important that there are no malfunctions in the studio. You have to maintain the studio all the time. For example, every Friday or Saturday, once a week, I do the studio maintenance - I go over everything. If I find something small, even the smallest issue, I fix it or replace the part.

Building equipment also comes into this, in a way. Do you have to keep buying new gear?

Yes, building equipment is a whole different field, but still, you buy new things from time. I understand the basics of the electronics behind this equipment. I built a compressor here by myself - that’s my build, I built it completely from scratch.

It’s easy for me because I’ve been in this field for so many years and I’m very interested in it, so I know the inner workings of the devices. I also upgrade my equipment - for example, I have two units here where I replaced the power supplies and other parts to make them much more serious and high-quality.

But basic studio maintenance is essential - especially microphone cables and everything related to signal flow, if you hear crackling, noise in the notebook, or a cable acting up - put it aside. On Saturday, open it, resolder it from the beginning, check everything. If you don’t, it becomes a problem.

How do you divide your time?

Listen, today I’m really, truly a very busy person. And I’m forced - really forced to choose who I work with and who I don’t. I have to divide my time only between the things I truly need to focus on.

I’m a professional guitarist. Any professional guitarist watching this knows that if you don’t practice 3–4 hours a day, your level drops very quickly. And I have to raise my level, not lower it. That means I need to practice even more hours.

I have a saying - for many years already: ‘If you have time to sleep, you have time to play.’ Sleep fewer hours.

And there are days when I sleep two or three hours. I simply enjoy playing at night. We’re here in the morning, and then the work continues.

Let’s talk now about the vinyl you released and the projects you’re working on today.

Yes, so, here’s the thing - there are two things I’m working on today in a very serious way. Besides the studio and recording clients - that’s obvious and continues as usual.

The very important thing - as I said, in two weeks I’ll be sixty - and I decided to give myself a gift: to release my own album, another one, with my own music, personal music. And it will come out on vinyl, yes, a record. A real vinyl album.

What’s really special is that this album features international musicians. Because I perform a lot in Israel and abroad, touring around the world, I know many incredible musicians.

And it’s an honour - really, a huge honour - that they agree to play on my album. One of them is the legendary drummer Atma Anur. Atma Anur is the house drummer for Shrapnel Records, the label that produced all the greatest guitarists in the world.

He played on Jason Becker’s and Marty Friedman’s Cacophony album, he played with Marty Friedman and Jason Becker, Tony MacAlpine, and Vinnie Moore, with Greg Howe, and many, many other world-famous musicians.

So, this drummer is participating on my album. He’s not only playing - but we’re also actually brainstorming together, working together, meeting, creating. It’s something very, very fun - truly a great joy to work with him. It’s truly a great pleasure and a great honour to work with him.

Yossi Fine - everyone in Israel knows him. He’s a musical director and bass guitarist. He played with David Bowie and many others. He is also participating in the album, and that’s another huge honour.

There are all kinds of musicians from around the world taking part in this album.

Now, in December - I estimate next week - we’ll begin pressing the album itself. And how do we do that?

My dear friend Russell Ralphy Lipelis and I opened another branch of this big business, called The VINYL Lab. We are among the first in the country to bring vinyl production back - pressing records again in Israel.

So yes, friends, we’re back. We brought the equipment. We were just abroad, at the factory itself, and purchased two stations - not one, two - for vinyl production. And of course, everything that comes with it.

Vinyl requires special mastering - it’s not the same as regular mastering. So, we brought and purchased special mastering gear, API. We have two of these stations, set up in a separate room - two full workstations dedicated to producing vinyl.

We also do sleeves, artwork - everything under one roof. Meaning an artist comes in and says, ‘I want vinyl,’ and from start to finish, he receives vinyl records.

We don’t produce 20,000 copies. We do between 10 and 100. Of course, we also do 1,000 or 2,000, yes - but right now we’re not manufacturing quantities like 20 or 50 thousand. So, in Israel, I don’t think we need more than that. We’re a small country, and that’s the solution.

My new album is about to come out now, and the name of the album will be Go Forward. Moving forward. We’re proudly going to duplicate it on our own machines - ours. This is the first album that will come out of The Vinyl Lab, our own release.

So that’s what I’m busy with today. My album is very, very important to me, the people I work with, and of course The Vinyl Lab - this is our new business that we’re developing in a big way. "Remember this name: The Vinyl Lab - in a year it’s going to explode in the music industry. Everyone will hear about it, I promise.”

“What do you want to give the next generation of music creators?”

Listen, what I want to give them is a lot of good music.

“And what message do you want to pass on?”

What I want to give the younger crowd, first of all - and this is true for every art form, but since I’m in music, I’ll speak about music - is this: First of all, make music for the music itself. Not for success. Not for money. Don’t create for fame.

Success will come if you’re good. If you make real music from the heart, from the soul - people will recognize that. Success will come; that’s not even a question. If you’re doing something truly good for yourself.

But along with that, there must be persistence and professionalism.

That’s the secret of any art, any craft - and especially in our profession, in music.

There are many times you fall in music. A lot of setbacks. But for every ten falls, you get one success. And you need to take that success as a cornerstone and move forward from it. From every fall, you need to learn - make it count and move ahead. Don’t get discouraged.

“What are your expectations from students before they come to you?”

To really love what they’re coming to learn. To love the profession. Usually, the people who come to study with me are already musicians. They entered the world of sound. And music and sound are slightly different things. It becomes more technical. So, I teach them technical things.

So, in terms of musicality - the love is already there. They don’t need to love sound engineering to start; they need to want to create. So, there aren’t many “requirements.” The best requirement is the desire - the desire to be in this field at all.

Like in every profession: if you want to be a professional, you must love what you do.

Success in music, or in any profession, is first of all that the person wants. Don’t say, “We’ll buy you a bicycle if you go learn guitar.” It won’t work. The child needs to come and say, “I want to play guitar.” Or learn sound.

“Where can people find you?”

I live everywhere possible in the media. On Facebook - Alex Aizenberg and Live Sound Recording Studio. On Instagram - Live Sound Recording Studio. Now I also have TikTok - Alex Aizenberg, I’m just a guitarist there. No studio. I just play guitar, and I’d be happy if you entered, followed me - it’s fun. Connect.

And phone: 053-531-5340.

Anyone who wants production, recording, to learn - anyone who wants to become a professional - this is the address.

Thank you, Alex, for hosting us, for the interesting and open conversation, and for your inspiration - for reminding all of us that music is not only what we hear, but what we live.

Thank you very much, it was a great pleasure.

Thank you.

And thank you all as well.

This was another episode of Informal Talk - conversations about creation and the reality behind it.

See you in the next episode.

Rock ’n’ roll.