Recording - April 2011 - 54

By Todd Gascon and Bruce Kaphan

Chapter 13: The role of the producer—part 1
Editor’s Note: The meaning of the word producer, as in music producer, has undergone subtle transformations over time, reflecting a number of developments in the music industry. In the “old old” days a producer would represent the record label, schedule and attend the sessions, supervise the engineers (but never touch a knob if it was a union shop), make sure the bandleader or the copyists had brought the music to go on the musicians’ stands, call the breaks, confer with the bandleader about re-takes, and report back to the label about the progress of the sessions. Then in the “old” days, the ’60s, producers became more hands-on. People like George Martin (The Beatles) would work more closely with the musicians and the engineers, suggest sounds, encourage various ways of performing parts, come up with creative experiments with recording techniques, be more involved on a person-to-person and on a musical level, live and breathe with a project until its completion. Later, beginning in the ’80s and blossoming in the ’90s, came the recording equipment revolution that now makes it possible to record and produce music in a personal environment. That has again given new meaning to the term producer. As a reader of Recording you are, by definition, a recording musician. As such, you could just as easily be in a situation where you work on a recording project under the direction of a producer, or you could be working as a producer yourself. If you work under the direction of a producer, it might be in the capacity of the first or second engineer, or as a performer, or as a songwriter whose song is being recorded by others and who is asked to be in attendance in case some fixes are needed. Those situations may require signing some papers so you and the producer have a good understanding of what’s expected of each other. This is what this first of two articles is about. In next month’s column we’ll look at the situation where you are the producer, possibly combined with other activities, like producer/songwriter/programmer/recordist/performer— any or all of these tasks rolled into one.—LzR
54
RECORDING APRIL 2011

Musician Bruce Kaphan on Producers I was a professional musician long before I became a professional engineer/producer. As my experiences as a player grew, I had a number of bad experiences with other people producing projects I played on—basically I saw producers as meddlers interfering with a process they didn’t appear to know much about. Meanwhile, I had been dabbling for a few years, recording myself, and bands I played with, on a TEAC 40-4 quarter-inch analog machine. I thought I had a pretty good idea of what it meant to produce myself and my bands, and wondered why working with an outside producer always seemed to be more awkward and unsatisfying than just doing it myself. Over time, I came to realize it was at least three issues: (1) my personality—for better or for worse, (2) my innate and fluid understanding of how sound and recording works, and most importantly, (3) I hadn’t yet worked with a good producer. The first time I worked with a really good producer, I finally understood that a capable person in this role could actually provide an extremely useful set of benefits to the recording process. Over the years I’ve learned that a capable producer will be the one person in the room who has listened and thought about the music more than anyone else. He or she will be the best-qualified person to judge the most important aspects of a performance, including those that are hard to quantify— things like vibe, emotional connectedness, and musical density. My own experience as a self-producing musician, as well as my experience with most other musicians and singers has been that it’s one thing to be performing, and quite another to have a global perspective on how all parts are fitting together. It’s very difficult, and in my humble opinion not entirely advisable, to step outside one’s own performance-in-progress to have a dispassionate look at how that performance is serving the song, and interacting with other simultaneous or previously recorded parts. On top of this, if an arrangement is being crafted evolutionarily, it’s difficult for the musician involved in performing to maintain a vision of how parts that haven’t yet been recorded will fit with elements that are being recorded in the moment. For me, appreciating what a good producer can bring to a project was a lesson that took me a long time to learn. Over the years, having worked with some great producers, I can only hope that their good qualities have rubbed off on me, at least a little. Since I was once a person who didn’t really believe that producers were necessary or useful, and that was in an era when the recording studio environment carried a well-higher price of admission than it does



Recording - April 2011

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Recording - April 2011

Recording - April 2011
Fade In
Contents
Talkback
Fast Forward
Blue Spark Microphone
Chris Cox Remixes Michael Jackson
MOTU BPM
FXpansion Geist
JDK Audio R20 Microphone Preamp, R24 Equalizer, and R22 Compressor
Reviewed & Revisited: Cakewalk SONAR X1
Slate Digital Trigger Platinum
Reviewed & Revisited: Synthogy Ivory II
WaveMachine Labs Drumagog 5.0
DAW Details
Readers’ Tapes
It’s Your Music—Know Your Rights. Chapter 13: The Role of the Producer—Part 1
Recording’s Showcase of Sounds
Advertiser Index
In The Studio
Recording - April 2011 - Recording - April 2011
Recording - April 2011 - Cover2
Recording - April 2011 - 1
Recording - April 2011 - Fade In
Recording - April 2011 - 3
Recording - April 2011 - Contents
Recording - April 2011 - 5
Recording - April 2011 - Talkback
Recording - April 2011 - 7
Recording - April 2011 - Fast Forward
Recording - April 2011 - 9
Recording - April 2011 - Blue Spark Microphone
Recording - April 2011 - 11
Recording - April 2011 - Chris Cox Remixes Michael Jackson
Recording - April 2011 - 13
Recording - April 2011 - 14
Recording - April 2011 - 15
Recording - April 2011 - MOTU BPM
Recording - April 2011 - 17
Recording - April 2011 - 18
Recording - April 2011 - 19
Recording - April 2011 - FXpansion Geist
Recording - April 2011 - 21
Recording - April 2011 - 22
Recording - April 2011 - 23
Recording - April 2011 - JDK Audio R20 Microphone Preamp, R24 Equalizer, and R22 Compressor
Recording - April 2011 - 25
Recording - April 2011 - Reviewed & Revisited: Cakewalk SONAR X1
Recording - April 2011 - 27
Recording - April 2011 - 28
Recording - April 2011 - 29
Recording - April 2011 - Slate Digital Trigger Platinum
Recording - April 2011 - 31
Recording - April 2011 - 32
Recording - April 2011 - 33
Recording - April 2011 - Reviewed & Revisited: Synthogy Ivory II
Recording - April 2011 - 35
Recording - April 2011 - WaveMachine Labs Drumagog 5.0
Recording - April 2011 - 37
Recording - April 2011 - 38
Recording - April 2011 - 39
Recording - April 2011 - DAW Details
Recording - April 2011 - 41
Recording - April 2011 - 42
Recording - April 2011 - 43
Recording - April 2011 - 44
Recording - April 2011 - 45
Recording - April 2011 - Readers’ Tapes
Recording - April 2011 - 47
Recording - April 2011 - 48
Recording - April 2011 - 49
Recording - April 2011 - 50
Recording - April 2011 - 51
Recording - April 2011 - 52
Recording - April 2011 - 53
Recording - April 2011 - It’s Your Music—Know Your Rights. Chapter 13: The Role of the Producer—Part 1
Recording - April 2011 - 55
Recording - April 2011 - Recording’s Showcase of Sounds
Recording - April 2011 - 57
Recording - April 2011 - 58
Recording - April 2011 - 59
Recording - April 2011 - 60
Recording - April 2011 - 61
Recording - April 2011 - 62
Recording - April 2011 - 63
Recording - April 2011 - 64
Recording - April 2011 - Advertiser Index
Recording - April 2011 - 66
Recording - April 2011 - 67
Recording - April 2011 - 68
Recording - April 2011 - 69
Recording - April 2011 - 70
Recording - April 2011 - 71
Recording - April 2011 - In The Studio
Recording - April 2011 - Cover3
Recording - April 2011 - Cover4
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