A producer - what does he/she actually do ?

toucheatout 2006-03-09 02:00

Well, I'd say the producer actually does a great deal ! (if he's good) .

He usually (if he's any good) is or used to be a musician himself, with a good working knowledge of composing, arranging, recording, mixing and the music business and industry. He knows the trends, what might work and what surely won't, but more than that, he can tell "when's it good and when it's not" (more on that later).

In fact, he acts a bit like a coach, taking (a little) pressure off the artist (result and process-wise), overseeing the project over a potentially long period of time -depending on the scope of the artist (a few days, a few weeks or a few months - Radiohead's "Kid A" took a year to produce !)- assembling a musical and technical team, and overseeing the creative process by providing an expert ear to what's happening, helping every step of the way the artist walks to take often difficult decisions. And all that within time and budget constraints fixed by the recording company !

In detail, he

Supports the artist in his creative act (sometimes his personnal life)
Helps him or her to get the best out of his or her songs (sometimes suggesting musical parts and/or arrangements ideas, cooperations)
Helps to choose the songs for production (and their order on the cd - much later on)
Helps to choose the right studio musicians if needed
Helps to choose the studio(s) for recording, mixing and mastering (the last is a very important process which creates a sonic unity on an album, level and quality-wise)
Manages the production details and schedule
oversees the gruelling recording and mixing processes (believe me, it's long, hard, and very energically and emotionnaly demanding)
Making in the end musical and sonic decisions, sometimes very technical , and of great importance.
In the end, he has lend his ears, energy, knowledge and experience to help the artist go throught the creative, recording and marketing process.

I could stop now, but I'll just take U2 as an example... Remember Brian Eno (he's also famous for the original Windows jingle) ?

He's been their producer on many albums, the most famous collaboration being The Joshua Tree album (he also did The Unforgettable Fire, Achtung Baby, Zooropa and All That You Can't Leave Behind), with songs like "Where The streets have no name", "With or Without You" and "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking for" amongst others coming out of it.

He really helped them to shape their sound. If you're interested, I think you can see a part of the process on the "The Unforgetable Fire" video (working on songs like "Gloria" and "In The Name Of Love" if I'm not mistaken...).

Quotes : "Not a bad take, but you can do better, let's try it again..." "How about trying the song just a little bit faster (or slower) ?" 'What about just taking this bass line (D-A-B-G) troughout the song and just changing on the guitar bridge to an A pedal ?" (believe me or not, that's "With or Without you" in the last example !)

To conclude, a good producer is a bit like Socrates: he helps the artist find his way. He also takes care of many technical aspects (which allow the artist to focus more on creating) and has a vital importance, just by saying stuff like : "ok, good take, let's just do the bridge again one time, you were slightly off on the last note", "sorry, the feel really changed in the middle of this take so it doesn't quite work, how about doing again from the top ?" or even "let's take a break, ok ?"

What I'm trying to say is, it's hard to do a good recording, and when it's take 23 and you're trying to record the best second part of the second verse you possibly can, you've been in the studio for x days, x hours that day, you're tired, thirsty, you hurt and want to go home, you REALLY need someone trustworthy to tell you "that was great, it's a keeper !" - but only when it's true because you're trying to make to best album you possibly can...