You are reading this post because you are dreaming to become a record producer. Let me help you in attaining your goal by providing some practical tips. Bear in mind that being proficient in all the technical aspects of recording, mixing and mastering process is also very important. But technical skills however is an added advantage but NOT required if you would like to become a recording producer.
What is required is that you should be able to transform an ordinary raw demo of the song (provided by the songwriter or the artist) into a great sounding music using production elements (unique drum sequence, cool guitar solos, great bass rhythms, nicely performed vocals, etc.) by utilizing the entire member of your team (recording engineers, mixing engineers, mastering engineers and your artist).
For example if you listen to your favorite song in the radio and you love the guitar intro, vocals, drum section etc. It is not solely because of the artist, guitarist or drummer. This is only one side of the equation. The real reason is that the recording producer is GREAT! It is because the producer will be the one that decides and approves the artist performance while recording in the studio. If the producer does not like the resulting sound coming from the guitars, it will not become the best take that would be included in the final mix.
The producer will ensure that all the arrangements (which are the production elements) added to the song sounds very nice. Be thankful to the record producer because he/she really the biggest factor why song you’ve heard in the radio and everywhere sounds great.
Aside from working with the song on how to make it sound great, you should be comfortable working with several artists and help them reach their full potential. You should have the talent of spotting the strength of your artist and using them to create the best sound from their instruments. All you need really is an open and critical ear. By listening to your artist performance, you will decide whether it sounds good or not. If not, ask for another arrangement until you are satisfied before recording it.
Easy Steps to become a Recording Producer
Now for the most exciting part, how do you start to become a record producer?
1.)Start with any artist that writes their own original songs. Decide on a genre you love (whether rock, jazz or country, etc.). Of course before contacting them, you should like that song you are planning to produce. It could be your neighbours’ band or classmates in college. Tell them that you want to produce their best song in the manner it would sound as professional as possible or broadcast ready. Many would say “yes” because their demo does not sound nice and broadcast ready. Tell them that you are willing to finance the project, more on this later on.
2.)Politely ask them to provide some demo tapes of their recording, if they do not have some demo tapes, ask them to play live during their practice. You can record the live performance of the song in your own recorder (handheld cassette is enough).
3.)Study the song. Like the favorite song you hear in the radio, assess what is lacking with their song and you can add so that it will further improve in quality and marketability aspect. It can be another intro, drum sequence, change in tempo, change in style or even change in melody! You can do anything just to further improve the song. You can even re-arrange it and add your own melodies to further improve the song hook. Make that track a proven hit song. In this case, you are contributing the song writing aspect of that song and you could claim some ownership in the song copyright (more details later on)
4.)Meet with them again during their band session and introduce your changes. Let the band practice the changes. They should love it! If the remarks from the band have been very positive because it helps improve their song, offer them to record the song finally in the professional studio. Of course, you should be financing the recording and you will be claiming the sound recording copyright ownership. Some bands have money and you can share the expenses with them and also the ownership of the sound recording copyright. Details of the legal aspects will be provided later.
5.)Since you are the producer, you will be booking with your desired recording studio in advance and research for good recording, mixing and mastering engineers that can work on your song. Use the Internet and get some feedbacks on them. Make sure you know the engineer is great and that you have listened to some of the previous works.
6.)During the recording session, you are the boss. The band should perform the entire song according to your production plan and the changes you have incorporated to make the song sounds very nice. Organize the files recorded so that you won’t get lost with so many retakes or repeats.
7.)After recording, you will forward the tracks to the mixing engineer. Sit together with the mixing engineer during the entire session and assess the results as if you are listening to your favorite song in the radio. Make sure you love the resulting mix down and should pass your quality standard. It is important to document everything during the recording session.
8.)You can then submit the mix to the mastering engineer to make the recording of the song broadcast ready. Keep all masters of the song. This includes the high resolution digital master in 24-bit/96KHz and the CD audio master provided by the mastering engineer. Store this in a safe place.
You can read the section that talks about the details pertaining to the required skills of a producer.
Essential Recording Producer Skill Sets
So you realy think you want to be a record producer?
If you have the passion of creating a music album, singles, sound recording, etc. And you would like to work with artist/band or singer whether in the recording studio, or do a songwriting session with them as well as help them release their own work. Then you need to become a recording producer.
Types of Record Producers
Before knowing the very important skill sets. There are two types of producers each requiring specific and broad types of skill set:
1.) Creative producers
These types of producers are more likely to excel in songwriting, managing artists, motivating artist and other managerial tasks.
These are very common in traditional type of record producers in the 60’s down to the 90’s.
2.) Technical type of producers
These producers know the record process in detail and also know how to operate a mixing console, perform the recording, mix, or even master the recordings.
These types of record producers tend to be more common today than yesterday. You might hear the word “bedroom producers”; these producers are writing and producing their own music at home. With the popularity of home studio recording; it gives birth to a lot of technical type of producers.
It is important that in the long term you possess both skill sets to maximize your career as a producer. Probably in the early phase of your career, you need to concentrate on your core talents and skills (whether as a creative or a technical producer type), and then gradually possess another sets of skills.
Skill set for a Technical type of record producer
technical recording producer
Let’s start with the most common type of producers – the technical type.
You will certainly have a long way before you become a technical type of record producer. I recommend the following:
1.) Start as a recording engineer or even a mixing or mastering engineer. This will let you get acquainted with how the recording studio operates. Also you will need to become familiar with a variety of recording gears such as the mixing console, compressors, EQ, microphones, etc. And not only that, you should know to operate and use them in your recordings.
If you are home-based, you will find it easier today to set up a recording studio for you to practice. You can read the following tutorial links below to get started:
a.) How to record music at home (building your studio)
b.) 13 Important Factors in Computer Audio Recording
2.) And the most important is that once you have created your home studio is to practice recording songs. Try to self-produce some of your works. Having experience is still the best teacher. Take time to read recording, mixing and master related tutorials on this blog to learn some recommended practices of doing them.
3.) Once you master the art of creating good sound out of your recordings, you can then start producing the works of other songwriters. You might want to help them create a professional recording of their own songs.
4.) If you are pretty confident with your skills in producing songs with the help of your studio; you can upgrade your skill set to become a creative type of producer as well.
Skill set for a Creative type of record producer
This type of producer does not need to be an expert on how a recording studio operates. Instead, this type of producer has a very strong background in creative process of music composing, songwriting and arrangement.
For example, one of the greatest creative record producers is Sir George Martin. He is responsible for producing many of the Beatles’ no.1 hits.
George Martin of the Beatles
Photo credits:
beatlesnumber9.com
Below is the recommended tutorial to get you started as a creative type of record producer who is involved in writing songs.
a.) 6 Most Proven Hit Songwriting Tips
The producer does not need to be a songwriter of the work to be produced. The producer should be able to assess the marketability, strengths and weakness of the artist songs to be recorded.
The producer can give advice to songwriters how to further strengthen a song by improving its hook, etc.
Common Skill Sets – The most important requirements
OK, so what are the requirements for both types of producers? Based on my experience, it is listed below:
1.) Lifetime passion for music– you are a music producer, your job is to produce new music. It make sense that you should love music more than any other forms of entertainment. You will know this if:
a.) You find yourself listening and liking music since childhood and almost in a daily basis.
b.) You are fond of collecting recordings of your favorite bands or artist and willing to save money to pay for it.
c.) You both like new and old types of music.
d.) You love to sing even if you are not a talented singer.
e.) You like to play musical instruments; perhaps a guitar or piano.
If you have more passion in watching great movies than listening music; then you are more inclined to become a movie producer/director than a music producer.
2.) You have a vision to create an excellent arrangement for that song. A music producer is not always a songwriter. A music producer is someone that will transform the raw song (in lyrics and melody) into a fully produced recording material. So you should know what instruments, tracks and other effects to be added to further “push” the song to its commercial level.
Think of a music producer like a chef in the restaurant. A chef has all the ingredients inside the kitchen. A chef will decide what ingredients to add as well as the quantity to make a perfect food to serve. A music producer is the same. Instead of dealing with food ingredients, a music producer is dealing with raw songwriting material (coming from a songwriter), instruments in the studio and gears. For example, does this song fits to have a fast tempo or a slow one? Or with a guitar intro or a piano intro? Or with a male or female vocalist? Or with longer or shorter reverb? All these decisions should come from a music producer. All session players, artist and sound engineers in the studio will just follow with what you have in mind.
3.) You should have strong musical background both in theory and practice. Sometimes when a music producer is working with a song. A music producer can add new arrangements, melodies or creative hook to further improve the song. This can be hard to do if you do not have strong music theory background. Its why it will be a big help if you want to become a music producer and you have strong songwriting skills.
4.) Understand and master a specific genre– A music producer is further classified either as a rock, country, pop teen, heavy metal or a jazz producer. You should have at least one expert genre. You should know this music genre very well. For example, if you are country music producer; you know that vocals and guitars are extremely important more than other instruments. Another example is that if you are a heavy metal producer, you know that the quality of the drum recordings and the tone of the guitar riff can play a big role in the success of your project. Or if you are a hip-hop producer, you know that the quality of your bass beats can mean success or failure of your album. You can attain mastery by experimentation and listening to your favorite artist in that specific genre.
5.) Producers should know how to distinguish a bad from good recordings. So take time to listen to professionally produced albums so that you will have an idea how it sounds.
6.) “Third ear” for detecting potential hit songs. Just what third eye can let a human person see extra-ordinary things, a “third ear” is important to a producer. You should have the ability to spot great songs in advance. This can be tough as most of the raw written songs does not often sound very nice. But as a producer, you can easily imagine if this song can sound great if it will be “fully” produced.
7.) Producers should be able to identify the best recording performance of the artist. You are responsible of approving/rejecting several takes in the studio. Make sure you are able to identify the best artist performance. This is highly critical especially for vocal recording.
8.) Producers should know how to manage and motivate the artist as well as the engineers in the recording studio. Professionalism and positive attitude is very important for your success.
9.) Also, regarding the budget of the album or recording. The producer should be able to handle it as well. If you are confused with the finances, you need help from an accountant.
10.) Excellent communication skills. You are required to communicate to the artist, engineer and the label in a frequent basis. Make sure your plans and goals are well understood by your team as you have the overall responsibility of the success and failure of the recording project.
I highly recommend to check out the related tutorials below for more helpful information pertaining to the legal and marketing aspects of being a recording producer.
Content last updated on October 11, 2012