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What Does a Music Producer Do?
Who is a Music Producer?
What defines a music producer and their involvement varies from producer to producer. Essentially, the music producer oversees all aspects of the creation of a song or album. These can include choice of song, choice of musicians, instruments and vocalist(s) and how those instruments are played and those notes sung as well as where the song or album is recorded. Like a director is to a film, the music producer is to a song.
Like a film director, the music producer has to be able to make split-second decisions and convey their vision of the final song to all those involved—the audio engineer, the musicians, the singer—in a manner that gets the best performance possible from each of them. The music producer needs to be able to focus on what’s going on in real-time as each track is laid down, as well as plan in advance by booking necessary studio time and session players or backup singers for the additional recording sessions as needed. This requires great communication skills as well as an excellent understanding of logistics and budgets.
If you are interested in the academic “book report” answer to this question, click here.
But, if you want to know the inside answer from professional audio engineers and music producers, continue reading – or listen to their own words here:
“The music producer is in charge of either writing the material or if he didn’t write it, he’s in charge of organizing it and making it sound like a cohesive song. He calls all the shots on what’s played, and when it’s played, and how it’s played, and the sounds that are used, or the vocals that are recorded if they’re correct or not. The producer is in charge of everything.”
– Rick Camp, RC1 Productions & Master Mix Live – Las Vegas, NV
Credits: Jennifer Lopez, Beyoncé, Mary J. Blige, Kelly Clarkson, Usher, Dr. Dre, Earth Wind & Fire
What does a music producer do?
A Music Producer has a wide range of responsibilities, but primarily a music producer oversees the creation of music.
Music Producers in the Studio
Music Producers can be viewed in the same role that directors serve for film. They creatively guide & direct the process of making a record.
“Okay, This is a touchy subject because the term ‘Music Producer’ has become very distorted in the last few years by the advent of the digital music creation stations, Logic, Fruity Loops, Reason, Ablteon Live, Pro Tools, etc. A music producer is the guy that is in charge of making your song sound the way he thinks your song should sound to be competitive in the market that your song will be in. A guy who makes beats on his laptop with FL studio is a beat maker.
“The music producer should be the guy that picks the studio and the engineer to work on your song from his experience of having worked on similar songs with the same guys. The music producer is hired because of his ideas in your genre of music. Then there are also vocal producers. Those guys can take your vocals and make you sing the way they know you can, and the way the song <em>needs</em> for you to sing. Then, they usually work with a mix guy that they trust to put the vocals together in the way the songs needs in order to be the best it can be. Beat makers take samples and put them together with other samples to make a ‘song’ They are not music producers. Sorry.”
<div class="alignright">– <strong>Donny Baker</strong>, ES Audio Services / <a href="https://www.recordingconnection.com/school-locations/los-angeles/">Open Call Productions</a>, Glendale, CA
<em>Credits: Beyoncé, Brandy, The Klassics, Alex Cantrall, Silkk the Shocker, Candace Glover</em></div>
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Music Producers as Visionaries
A large responsibility of the Music Producer is to help provide an overall vision for the album and help to find a seamless way to interrelate the music in an album.
A Music Producer wears many hats
A Music Producer is more than a one-trick pony. In most cases, producers bring other talents to a project, acting as a music arranger, composer, musician or songwriter.
“Today’s music producer is handling every role that we had 5 different guys handling 10 years ago. They are engineering and mixing as they are writing the songs. They’re playing the instruments, choosing the co-writers, supplying the studios. They even balance the finances of project. Many of today’s producers have even absorbed the A&R roles that historically fell on the shoulders of the record label. He’s finding the artists, spending the development time nurturing them, and then bringing them into the label on a silver platter.”
<div class="alignright">– <strong>Cameell Hanna</strong>, Serenity West Recording, <a href="https://www.recordingconnection.com/school-locations/los-angeles/">Los Angeles</a>, CA
<em>Credits: Justin Timberlake, Adele, Florence & the Machine, Eva Simons, Wiz Khalifa, Snoop Dogg</em></div>
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<div data-gatsby-image-wrapper="" style="position:relative;overflow:hidden;display:inline-block;vertical-align:top" class="gatsby-image-wrapper gatsby-image-wrapper-constrained alignleft inline-gatsby-image-wrapper" data-reactroot=""><div style="max-width:1024px;display:block"><img alt="" role="presentation" aria-hidden="true" src="data:image/svg+xml;charset=utf-8,%3Csvg height='909.0053475935829' width='1024' xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg' version='1.1'%3E%3C/svg%3E" style="max-width:100%;display:block;position:static"/></div><div aria-hidden="true" data-placeholder-image="" style="height:100%;left:0;position:absolute;top:0;width:100%"></div><picture><source type="image/webp" data-srcset="/static/e1ab92121da4367cdedd0bd7fe9d59aa/73b86/mike-johnson.webp 47w,/static/e1ab92121da4367cdedd0bd7fe9d59aa/f9fed/mike-johnson.webp 94w,/static/e1ab92121da4367cdedd0bd7fe9d59aa/9c296/mike-johnson.webp 187w" sizes="(min-width: 187px) 187px, 100vw"/><img data-gatsby-image-ssr="" data-wp-inline-image="9" data-main-image="" style="height:100%;left:0;position:absolute;top:0;transform:translateZ(0);transition:opacity 250ms linear;width:100%;will-change:opacity;opacity:0" sizes="(min-width: 187px) 187px, 100vw" decoding="async" loading="lazy" data-src="/static/e1ab92121da4367cdedd0bd7fe9d59aa/c9e88/mike-johnson.jpg" data-srcset="/static/e1ab92121da4367cdedd0bd7fe9d59aa/39562/mike-johnson.jpg 47w,/static/e1ab92121da4367cdedd0bd7fe9d59aa/da0fb/mike-johnson.jpg 94w,/static/e1ab92121da4367cdedd0bd7fe9d59aa/c9e88/mike-johnson.jpg 187w" alt="Mike Johnson, Recording Connection Mentor"/></picture><noscript><picture><source type="image/webp" srcSet="/static/e1ab92121da4367cdedd0bd7fe9d59aa/73b86/mike-johnson.webp 47w,/static/e1ab92121da4367cdedd0bd7fe9d59aa/f9fed/mike-johnson.webp 94w,/static/e1ab92121da4367cdedd0bd7fe9d59aa/9c296/mike-johnson.webp 187w" sizes="(min-width: 187px) 187px, 100vw"/><img data-gatsby-image-ssr="" data-wp-inline-image="9" data-main-image="" style="height:100%;left:0;position:absolute;top:0;transform:translateZ(0);transition:opacity 250ms linear;width:100%;will-change:opacity;opacity:0" sizes="(min-width: 187px) 187px, 100vw" decoding="async" loading="lazy" src="/static/e1ab92121da4367cdedd0bd7fe9d59aa/c9e88/mike-johnson.jpg" srcSet="/static/e1ab92121da4367cdedd0bd7fe9d59aa/39562/mike-johnson.jpg 47w,/static/e1ab92121da4367cdedd0bd7fe9d59aa/da0fb/mike-johnson.jpg 94w,/static/e1ab92121da4367cdedd0bd7fe9d59aa/c9e88/mike-johnson.jpg 187w" alt="Mike Johnson, Recording Connection Mentor"/></picture></noscript><script type="module">const t="undefined"!=typeof HTMLImageElement&&"loading"in HTMLImageElement.prototype;if(t){const t=document.querySelectorAll("img[data-main-image]");for(let e of t){e.dataset.src&&(e.setAttribute("src",e.dataset.src),e.removeAttribute("data-src")),e.dataset.srcset&&(e.setAttribute("srcset",e.dataset.srcset),e.removeAttribute("data-srcset"));const t=e.parentNode.querySelectorAll("source[data-srcset]");for(let e of t)e.setAttribute("srcset",e.dataset.srcset),e.removeAttribute("data-srcset");e.complete&&(e.style.opacity=1)}}“He is in charge, kind of like the film director, but he’s in charge of getting all of the musicians to play their best, the song to get . . . to come out the way it was intended, and to make sure that the sounds of the engineer in the studio are fitting the song style.”
– Mike Johnson, Clear Track Recording Studios, Clearwater, FL
Credits: John Legend, Jeff Berlin, Boyz II Men, The Roots, Alice Cooper, U2, Madonna
Did you know?
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Here’s the academic “book report” answer:
Music producers are often defined as the unsung heroes behind the scenes in popular music. In recording a song, or making a record, the music producer serves much the same role as a director in a film.
