Marti Jane Robertson

“I primarily consider myself a musician and always take a musical approach to my work, whether it be recording, mixing, mastering or mixing a live concert. Technology is useful to me only to the extent that it allows me to obtain musically what I have in my head, and what I have in my head is nothing other than my interpretation of what the artist has in mind.”

This is how Marti Jane Robertson describes herself in her work, which she’s been doing for the last 40-odd years. She studied clarinet, saxophone and flute starting in elementary school, musical studies which would become incredibly useful as an audio engineer. At 18, she left pre-med studies at the University of Washington and started apprenticing in a small recording studio in Seattle under her mentor, Peter B. Lewis. The following year, Marti moved to New York City where her career as an engineer took hold, moving quickly from assistant engineer to house engineer to freelancer. She worked regularly with musicians, artists and producers, many of whom made musical history: Michael and Randy Brecker, Marcus Miller, Phil Ramone, Steely Dan, Art Garfunkel, Don Grolnick, among many others. “During the day, we all did jingles. Nights and weekends we did records.” It was still an analogical world and there was so much to learn!

Marti became a respected and requested engineer but she began to lose interest in New York as a final destination. She started to travel: Italy, France, the UK. She fell immediately in love with Italy, its people and culture, and became determined to move there. She waited for her chance and in 1986, that moment arrived.

She started in Milan, in a blossoming studio called Psycho which would soon put out some of the most innovative records of that period: artists such as Elio e le Storie Tese, PFM, Renato Zero, Pitura Freska, Enrico Rava. In 1990, Marti was offered the FOH position for Eros Ramazzotti’s European Tour “In Ogni Senso” and her career widened to include live sound. In 1991, she began what was to become a 20-plus year professional relationship with Ivano Fossati, working both in the studio and live. In 1996, Antonio Baglio generously shared with her his mastering techniques and secrets, which she happily added to her store of knowledge. In the early 2000s, Marti invested in a state-of-the-art home recording system which allowed her to do on-location recording, then mix and master at home. This new dimension allowed her to move to the beautiful island of Sardinia where she presently resides. Then Michelegiuseppe Rovelli, a young, enthusiastic musician/producer with a work ethic very similar to her own, proposed to build a recording studio together and in 2016 in Cagliari, janeStudio opened its doors! Marti continues working and travelling, holds seminars and Masterclasses and teaches at the Conservatory, passing on the Legacy she is so honored to be a part of.