Sunlight Productions was created by Wendel Martinez Carvalho, whose academic background and professional experience are rooted in the IT industry. Unsurprisingly, we're passionate about the intersection of technology and music!
We love vintage audio gear. Analog equipment, tube amplifiers, vintage instruments, everything that “old-school producers” never stop talking about. At the same time, we appreciate the convenience, flexibility, and efficiency that modern digital tools provide.
We've been working with digital audio technology since the early 2000s. During that time, we've witnessed countless changes in the industry. We've seen DAWs rise and fall, survived the era of DXi plug-ins before VST became the dominant standard, and watched Pro Tools abandon their dedicate audio interface in favor of third party devices. We've been using Waves plug-ins since those early days (some of them are still part of our workflow today), and so on!
Today, we operate a hybrid studio that combines both analog and digital technologies. Our setup includes instruments and microphones from respected manufacturers such as Fender, Gibson, Shure, AKG, Sennheiser, Rode, Roland, and Yamaha, along with classic analog preamps and channel strips. All of this equipment is integrated into a modern digital workstation running an industry-standard DAW (yes, Pro Tools—we know, judge us if you must!).
We also maintain an extensive collection of professional plug-ins and sample libraries running into Native Instruments Kontakt, Toontrack, and UVI platforms. We're also fond of Arturia products, from their MIDI controllers and vintage synth collections to their outstanding software synthesizer, Pigments.
Are we using AI in our productions?
The short answer is: Not!
Every track in the Sunlight Productions catalog has been composed, performed, and recorded by human beings.
We've tested several AI-powered music generation platforms, and while the technology is impressive, the results have generally been disappointing from a professional standpoint. The arrangements often feel generic, chord progressions tend to be predictable, melodies lack personality, and rhythmic patterns become repetitive very quickly.
The production quality also leaves much to be desired. Instrument tones frequently sound artificial, mixes often feel unfocused, audible artifacts can appear throughout a track, and masters are over-compressed.
There is also the issue of originality. In some cases, AI-generated music can resemble existing works closely enough to raise concerns about copyright infringement and intellectual property rights—something we take very seriously when producing content for our clients.
For these reasons, we currently consider AI music-generation tools unsuitable for truly professional audiovisual productions.
That said, we believe AI will become increasingly useful as a specialized assistant rather than a replacement for composers, musicians and producers. In the future, AI may help with tasks such as advanced music notation, arrangement and orchestration support, audio editing, mixing assistance, and workflow optimization. Instead of creating finished music, these tools will help creators work faster and more efficiently while maintaining artistic control.
Do We Use Technology in Our Productions?
Absolutely.
Our productions make extensive use of virtual instruments, sample libraries, amplifier simulators, all sort of plugins, and other digital tools. These technologies allow us to achieve excellent results while keeping projects efficient and cost-effective.
In our view, such tools are essential for small and medium-sized productions, where budgets and deadlines often require practical solutions without compromising quality.
For larger productions, however, we generally prefer the traditional approach whenever possible: talented musicians performing real instruments in an acoustically treated recording environment, captured by experienced engineers using high-end recording equipment. There's still something special about that process that technology cannot fully replicate.
Do We Use Samples from Other Artists?
Our primary focus is music production for soundtracks, advertising, and other commercial applications. To protect our clients from potential copyright issues, we generally avoid using samples taken from other artists' recordings.
Even when producing genres such as hip-hop and electronic music, which have a long tradition of sample-based production, we prefer to create our own original samples exclusively for use in our projects.
That said, if you're a hip-hop or electronic music artist who would like us to produce a track using a specific licensed sample, or if you're interested in licensing and using samples created by us in your own productions, we'd be happy to discuss the project. Feel free to contact us for more information.