Andrew Aversa, better known as zircon, has been a covert-ops electronic audio specialist since 2002, and currently focuses on developing cutting-edge, rhythm-based defensive systems. His headquarters are presently located on the outskirts of Philadelphia, where he has developed an “organic electronic” compound used to construct his powerful brand of music inspired by artists such as the Prodigy, BT, The Chemical Brothers, Hybrid, Pendulum, and Fatboy Slim.

Though initially deployed with only classical knowledge, zircon’s training at OverClocked ReMix outfitted him with modern methods of sonic delivery. He has spent the last seven years honing his technique.

zircon’s continuously expanding arsenal of full-length albums and EPs has met with both critical and popular acclaim – Impulse Prime (Zircon Studios, 2005) achieved a dual victory at the 2006 Just Plain Folks Music Awards, winning “Best Techno Album” and the single “Tomorrow” winning “Best Techno Song”.

The EPs System (Progressive Grooves, 2008) and Breathing You In (Progressive Grooves, 2008) infiltrated both Beatport and Juno Records, reaching as high as #1 on the Juno Progressive Trance charts. Songs from the discography have entered the OurStage finals on four occasions, besting 99.9% of submissions each time.

Recent breakthrough research has led zircon to pursue music supply operations to film, TV, video games, ads, and other media platforms. Music from Antigravity (Zircon Studios, 2007) has been detected on the soundtrack of the hit games Super Street Fighter II Turbo: HD Remix (Capcom, 2008) and The Wheelman (Ubisoft/Midway, 2009) as well as the TV show Heroes (NBC) and a host of other outlets.

In 2009, Depth Charge (from Antigravity) was crowned “Best Techno Song of All-Time” on Garageband, weeks later winning “Best Techno Song” at the 2009 JPF Music Awards as well.

When he is not crafting organic electronic mixtures, zircon can be found teaching at Drexel University or otherwise assisting fellow musicians in the fields of production, mastering, and sound design. He is also a co-founder of sample library production company Impact Soundworks and administrator of the SoundTempest music industry news blog and artist help site.

Gear / Studio

Primary Production Rig: Custom quad-core PC workstation (built by AVADirect) with 45nm 2.66ghz Q9450 processor, 6gb memory, 32/64 bit operating systems, 1.5tb+ of storage and Presonus Firebox interface. Beyerdynamic DT-880 headphones.

DAW / Sequencers: FL Studio 9 for sequencing, mixing and mastering, REAPER and Wavelab for detailed audio editing.

Hardware: Korg X-50 61-key synthesizer, Yamaha P-120 Electric Piano, Oktava MK-319 condenser microphone (floating dome mod by OktavaMod), various Shure and MXL microphones.

Software Plugins (Selected): u-he Zebra 2, Native Instruments Pro-53, Kontakt 2, FM8, Reaktor 5, Absynth 4, Guitar Rig 2, GMedia impOSCar, Ichira Toda Synth1, Image-Line Sytrus, Spectrasonics Omnisphere, Stylus RMX, Trilian, ArtsAcoustic Reverb, dblue Glitch, PSP Nitro, IK Multimedia TRacks 2, SampleTank 2, Sonik Synth 2,

Sample Libraries (Selected): e-LAB Foundation, Obsession, Smoker’s Delight & Relight, Spectrasonics Stylus RMX, Backbeat, Symphony of Voices, Goldbaby MPC60 Volume 2, Bela D Media Lyrical Distortion, East West Quantum Leap Symphonic Orchestra Gold, Ra, Stormdrum, Symphonic Choirs, Colossus, and everything by Impact Soundworks.