Engineer/Producer

It comes up a little more often than I'd like. There's certain times when I absolutely want nothing to do with the role as a Producer, and others where I'll insist on it.

When a client asks me to be their producer, they usually want me to tell them when to redo a take, or try it another way, or take a break and come back to it etc. The role of the producer is to have an idea of where the song needs to go, and to get the best performance possible out of the artist. The problem with having me, as your engineer do it, is an awkward conflict of interest. First, you're paying me hourly. If I ask you to try a take again, I make more money the longer you work at it. That doesn't sit well with me. It feels sketchy. Secondly, you might be doing a style of music I'm either unfamiliar with, or just don't like listening to. So I'm maybe not the best person to be asking. Lastly I don't usually like it because I don't know you! What if that was your best take? What if I'm expecting more from you and you can't do it? The studio can be stressful enough, and I worked diligently at making sure it's comfortable. I don't want to undo all that by barking at you to be "better".

Now for when I insist on being the producer! It's almost always when I'm either giving someone a deal or it's a group coming in. Bickering happens real fast and takes up a lot of time. The bass player wants to spend 5 hours on his part, the drummer gets mad, maybe wants me to replace some of the drums with samples, the singer is twiddling his thumbs the whole time. This is the time when I insist on being a producer because they need someone to keep things in order. I will usually say, "Okay, we're not spending anymore time on this." Or, "To be honest, no one is going to notice that mistake". Again, it's not necessarily making musical decisions, but time based decisions. I may or may not be an expert in your style of music, but I probably do know better than you what you can get away with. We could spend 5 hours piecing together 5 different vocal takes, auditioning each line to see which one was best. But more often than not, your average listener won't notice.

And that is the other problem I run into. Obviously you being satisfied is my first priority. I want you to leave with a product you are happy with. I don't want you leaving thinking "Oh I wish I did that vocal line this way instead". But the truth is, EVERYONE does that. Big artists and groups have those regrets. There's always things you'll want to go back and change, but it doesn't mean it's unacceptable. Trust me, the only person who is going to know is you. If you're good, no one else is going to know you could have done that one take better. That being said, I will stop recording if you mess up. If there is a blatant mistake- your guitar is out of tune, you screwed up a lyric, you came in at the wrong time, you're more flat than autotune can handle, I'll tell you.