David Frangioni is a professional drummer, music technologist, magazine publisher, author of three books, designer of custom recording studios, and philanthropist. David has been the music technologist for Aerosmith for over 30 years and has worked with acts like The Rolling Stones, Ringo Starr, Elton John, Sting, Journey, Styx, Kiss, Ozzie Osborne, Phil Collins, Shakira, and Cher. He is also the publisher of Modern Drummer Magazine.

David Frangioni is the publisher at Modern Drummer. David has had a long career as a musician, producer, entrepreneur and author. In this episode he shares insight into his work at Modern Drummer, his career and his interesting life story.

Today’s guest has dedicated his life to the idea that escapism is one of the single most important elements of what makes us human.

As an award-winning veteran of the music industry, his expertise ranges from being a drummer and producer to an artist development and label founder. In his ground-breaking music tech consulting business, he worked with Aerosmith, the Stones, Ringo Starr, Elton John, and Sting.

He is the author of three books, the Founder of Audio One, and the CEO of Frangioni Media and All Access IDA. He recently became the Publisher of Modern Drummer Magazine, the world’s number one drumming publication.

Renowned audio engineer and audio expert, David Frangioni explains how he found refuge from his childhood trauma through escapism, audio work for the big names, and more on truth, trust, and the voice.

David Frangioni, an award-winning veteran of the music industry, has expertise ranging from being a drummer and producer to an artist development & label founder, audio consultant, music technologist, integrator, author & engineer.

He built a ground-breaking music tech consulting business working with Aerosmith, the Stones, Ringo Starr, Elton John, Sting, Bryan Adams, Journey, Styx, Phil Collins, Shakira, Pat Metheny, Rascal Flatts, Ozzy Osbourne, Chick Corea, and many more.

David has authored 3 books including Icon and Crash, along with founding Frangioni Media, Audio One based in South Florida, All Access IDA, and his non-profit Frangioni Foundation. In 2019, David became Publisher of Modern Drummer Magazine, the world’s #1 drum magazine.

David Frangioni, a music technologist and drummer who has worked with many of the world’s biggest rock artists including Aerosmith and Ozzy Osbourne, talks to Jason Barnard. Additionally, read on to see how to win a copy of Dave’s book CRASH: The World’s Greatest Drum Kits From Appice to Peart to Van Halen.

An Editor's Overview

Welcome to the July 2019 issue. If you’re into gawking at wild and famous drumkits, then you’re going to enjoy our photo-essay on Crash, the new coffee-table book by drummer, collector, and studio sound technician David Frangioni. In addition to talking to the author about it, we couldn’t resist reprinting a whole host of its photos, as well as a couple that didn’t make the final product.

Drummer this show is for you! David Frangioni is a respected pioneer in digital audio and video technology who has written for Rolling Stone, Fortune, and EQ. With David we discuss Peter Criss, Eric Carr, Eric Singer, Stuart Copeland, Clem Burke, Charlie Watts, Alex Van Halen, Butch Vig, Tommy Lee, Nigel Olson.

On May 13, Modern Drummer magazine announced David Frangioni will become its new publisher.

“I can’t wait to steward Modern Drummer into the new era,” said Frangioni in a statement. “I am going to use all my thirty-plus years of experience in a wide selection of music fields so that Modern Drummer can offer the most complete and…well…modern resource for drums, drummers, and drumming!”

David Frangioni started his music career as a drummer, but soon became a pioneer in MIDI technology. This lead him into the studio as an engineer and producer for dozens of top artists including The Stones, Ringo Starr, Aerosmith, Elton John, Sting, Carl Palmer, Journey, Styx, KISS, Phil Collins, Shakira, Ozzy Osbourne, and more.

“He’s just an amazing drummer, and an amazing person,” observes noted drum enthusiast and educator David Frangioni, author of 2018’s Crash: The World’s Greatest Drum Kits – From Appice to Peart to Van Halen (Insight Editions). Crash is devoted to being, quote, “the ultimate photographic guide to the world of rock ’n’ roll’s most famous drum kits,” and the 208-page hardback includes a lavish spread on Todd and his massive, current (albeit soon-to-be revised/replaced!) drum setup, as seen above in a photo by Jason Powell.

If I listed one of David’s careers, it would be impressive. But David isn’t a one-career type of guy. He’s a Renaissance man who’s reinvented himself over the years. David started as a drummer then evolved into a pioneer of MIDI technology, the founder of an award-winning A/V firm Audio One.

David Frangioni is an award-winning veteran of the music industry, with expertise ranging from being a drummer and producer himself, to an audio consultant, technologist, integrator and recording engineer. He started in the industry early, playing live at 12 years old, where he was focused on drumming with bands in Boston. He found the future of drumming in technology, starting his career first with a consulting business at age 16, which helped to make his connection with Aerosmith, where he was their in-house engineer/technologist for 13 years and continued working on their singles, albums, tours and even the theme song for the Spider-Man animated television series with Joe Perry along with much more starting in 1989.

David Frangioni of Audio One out of South Florida is an industry legend and award-winning audiophile consultant, recording engineer, studio installer, producer, technologist, and drummer. David has worked, consulted, and in many cases played drums alongside hundreds of music industry icons such as Aerosmith, Stones, Ringo Starr, Elton John, Sting, Bryan Adams, Journey, Styx, Phil Collins, Shakira, Rascal Flatts, Ozzy Osbourne, Chick Corea, and ELP.

Less than a decade ago, pro AV technology was thought to be the premier equipment market—the industry was untouchable and at the forefront of innovation. Many home technologies were born out of the AV market, and at-home-AV research and development was often started with professional R&D.

Today the opposite is occurring, it seems. Harman’s engineering team, for example, is leveraging technology drawn from the company’s connected car business. “Nobody in the pro industry can afford the thousands of engineers needed to develop secure Linux products,” said Mohit Parasher, president, Harman Professional Solutions. “We have access to that because that development was done for our connected car business. We can borrow 80 percent of the work and bring it into the pro industry. The same thing with the consumer side, and the services side, and from Samsung, etc.”

In this episode, Growin’ Up Rock talks with producer, engineer, and technologist David Frangioni. David’s early experience with MIDI technology would establish his reputation as the go-to guy for setting up home studio recording.  David became so much of an authority on MIDI setups, Aerosmith’s Joey Kramer gave David the title of “Midiot” along with the hat to go with it. David’s worked with countless rock artists including Aerosmith, Ozzy Osbourne, Elton John, Styx, and KISS.

Bands you will hear on this episode include Aerosmith and Led Zeppelin.

Few people in the world of music technology can claim the amount of experience and credits that David Frangioni has amassed. Frangioni is the recipient of dozens of gold and platinum albums as technical consultant, engineer, and/or programmer, for work with the Stones, Ringo Starr, Elton John, Sting, Bryan Adams, Journey, Styx, Shakira, Rascal Flatts, Ozzy Osbourne, Cher and hundreds more.

When someone is going to write a book about an area of non-fiction, you first ought to wonder what their qualifications are. Did they know the people and/or events they were writing about? Did they speak with people directly involved with the subject matter? Or better yet, does this author know what they are talking about?

In the case of David Frangioni -- author of CRASH: The World’s Greatest Drum Kits from Appice to Peart to Van Halen -- he has been the recipient of dozens of gold and platinum albums as technical consultant, engineer, and/or programmer. These award-related credits include work with The Rolling Stones, Ringo Starr, Elton John, Sting, Bryan Adams, Journey, Styx, Shakira, Rascal Flatts, Ozzy Osbourne, and Cher. Frangioni was the in-house engineer for five of the studio albums by Aerosmith, for whom he also built recording studios and high-end A/V systems.

Today we’d like to introduce you to David Frangioni.

David, an accomplished music technologist, founded Audio One to build recording studios for his clients including Aerosmith, Bryan Adams, the Stones, Elton John and many others. Audio One evolved to offering home theaters and then in the late-90’s home automation systems.