I’ve already labelledGeorge Martin as a “god-like-genius” amongst producers – although, after watching Elizabeth Gilbert’s inspiring TED talk on nurturing creativity, perhaps I should use different terminology !
Either way, his work with the Beatles means that over 30 years later he is still regarded by many as the ultimate record producer. A musician, engineer and inspirational collaborator, without whom the Beatles’ music would have been unrecognisable, and – in my opinion – nowhere near as fascinating, important or influential.
The term ‘music producer’ means different things to different people. Some are musicians, some are engineers, some are remixers.
So what does a music producer do ? The shortest answer I can come up with is – they try to create musical alchemy.
I’ve identified seven distinct types of record producer – here they are:
1. The Engineer
Possibly most people’s stereotypical idea of the “classic” record producer – hunched over a mixing desk, obsessing about compression settings, reverb tails and drum sounds – the studio is their instrument, and they play it like no other, obsessively burning the midnight oil to produce their sonic masterpieces.
What many don’t realise is that although most producers nowadays have a solid technical knowledge, historically this was far from the norm, as we’ll see.
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