Lines are easily blurred in the modern music industry. “Studio” can mean a multi-million dollar facility or a corner of a room with a laptop. It’s more common than ever for multiple hats to be worn by a single person. Do specific titles matter anymore? Maybe not. But for the sake of education, I want to do a breakdown on the duties of the Engineer and the Producer.
Audio Engineer
As the name should imply, the Engineer is more of a technician. They need to know how the equipment of a studio functions and how to troubleshoot it when it’s not functioning properly. They need to know how to use microphone techniques to capture sound sources like vocals and instruments with high quality. They need to be able to operate recording software aka a DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) in a smooth fashion that creates a flowing recording session where artists are able and comfortable to express their art and have it captured. An experienced Engineer may, when asked or when appropriate, offer feedback about the music performance, song arrangement, etc. Especially an engineer that has become your regular collaborator. The more artistic input an Engineer is given, the closer to a Producer they are becoming.
Producer
Many Producers begin as Audio Engineers, honing their studio skills and growing in their relationship skills with artists. The Producer is less hands-on with the technical, using their skills to communicate the desired sounds for the Engineer to execute. The Producer is focused more on the art of the song - the writing, arrangement and performance. This involves those creative aspects and also good rapport with the artist that gets them in their comfort zone while creating. Some Producers aren’t instrumentalists themselves but have a tasteful ear and good communication with musicians while many are skilled on multiple instruments and vocals. A Producer may even be a great artist in their own right that has found a passion in crafting songs with others.
(Beat) Producer
The above description is more of a Producer in the classic sense. Think George Martin with The Beatles in the 60’s. The term has taken on a wider meaning over the past few decades to include Beat Producers. While a traditional Producer may also create beat-style production, they typically do so in collaboration with the artist. A Beat Producer typically outputs beats regularly then places those songs ideas with artists rather than creating bespoke production for each situation. It’s not unusual for a Beat Producer and an artist to work together without ever being in the same room or even directly communicating with each other. While this Producer shares a title with the Producer I described above, the Beat Producer is more hands off after the initial instrumental is created. A Beat Producer can range in skills from someone that doesn’t play any instruments and relies on programming a laptop to create their music to a highly skilled instrumentalist that happens to prefer this modern approach.
The Producer/Engineer
It’s becoming increasingly common for one party to wear both the Producer and Engineer hats. Modern recording technology is accessible to a point that most sessions don’t need an Engineer that’s solely dedicated to technical operation. Some decades ago a Producer, Engineer, Assistant Engineer, Tape Operator and Session Musicians were the minimum heads needed to operate a session. Now your local Producer/Engineer/Multi-Instrumentalist can be your one stop for quality recording, making it more accessible than ever.
Contact me if you want to learn more about what my style of production can do for your music.
Drew Mantia
Feel Good Music Recordings
3146264270
feelgoodmusicrecordings@gmail.com
https://feelgoodmusicrecordings.com/
1908A Sidney, St. Louis, MO 63104