Music production is a grand and noble tradition stretching back decades, and there are certain accepted practices, standards, and norms that come with the profession of which the new generation of music producers seem to be ignorant. Perhaps even deliberately so!

The above sentence is obviously ridiculous, and although I’m writing this in 2022, I could be doing it at any number of points in time regarding this profession. And probably most other professions to be honest. Time marches on, things are done differently when tools, markets and demands change, and there will always be cries of despair from people who have a fixed idea of when things were ‘correct’. The author Douglas Adams summed this whole concept up brilliantly in his book The Salmon of Doubt:

“I've come up with a set of rules that describe our reactions to technologies:

1. Anything that is in the world when you’re born is normal and ordinary and is just a natural part of the way the world works.

2. Anything that's invented between when you’re fifteen and thirty-five is new and exciting and revolutionary and you can probably get a career in it.

3. Anything invented after you're thirty-five is against the natural order of things.”

In music production the role of the producer has changed over time, and the idea of a producer being someone who directs a singer and musicians in an all-day (or often much longer) recording studio session could now be considered the ‘traditional’ approach. In this scenario the producer is likely to be someone who was previously a recording or mixing engineer (Nigel Godrich, Hugh Padgham, Paul Epworth), or a successful musician (Brian Eno, Trevor Horn, Nile Rodgers). This was not always the case though. Prior to this ‘norm’, the studio sessions were strictly 3 hours at a time, and the producer was more likely to come from an orchestral arrangement background (George Martin, Phil Spector, Quincy Jones). And I’m sure in the 70s and 80s there were conversations about how this new breed of engineer / musician producer with their all-day / all-night sessions were making records in the wrong way.

So fast forward to today, and progress means that professional producers can come from all backgrounds. Although engineers and musicians are still part of today’s line-up, there are also DJs, rappers and songwriters, as well as people who started out just producing tracks from their bedrooms and grew from there.

The word ‘professional’ is an interesting clarification these days though. Before we had the ability to make pro-sounding music with affordable home-studio equipment, it was only those who were being paid by record companies (or rich musicians) to produce music who had the title. As it has become possible to make records without studios the title has become attached (seemingly) to anyone with a DAW, which I think is both a good and a bad thing. It’s good because barriers are coming down and the opportunity to learn how to be a great producer is now open to anyone with a computer and ambition. Such an increase in diversity of talent can only be a good thing for the industry.

But it’s bad because there is a lot that I feel a producer should be contributing to a project over and above providing a backing track, and if making the beat makes you a producer then I fear many people stop there.

An example I’ll give to illustrate this comes from my own obsession with recording vocals. I was lucky enough to train as an engineer in a very big, posh studio in London, and so assisted and shadowed some of the most successful producers from the UK and US while I was there. I loved learning how people got incredible vocal recordings – the atmosphere that was created in studio, how the lighting was arranged, how to set up headphones properly, what feedback to give to encourage the best performance. Basically, the psychology of the session that led to the best result.

Then there’s the compiling of the best version from all the different takes so that the right emotion is expressed, when tuning software improves the end result and when it destroys it (shameless plug – I’ve even put together a course with all of this in it, check below for details). This whole aspect of production could be getting lost. As a mix engineer, I’ve been given a bunch of lead vocal takes on more than one occasion recently and asked to comp the vocal based on what I want in the mix (top tip – this isn’t mixing, don’t ask your mix engineer to do this!). It amazes me that a producer would not want to do this themselves – a track can live or die based on the vocal performance, so the producer should really be concerned with every aspect of it.

So maybe that’s the trade-off? More diversity of opinions and tastes in production, but less focus on the psychology of sessions and working closely with artists. This is an over-simplification, and way too pessimistic. There are certainly plenty of new producers who are nailing it in terms of the new and old ways of working, just like there are plenty of producers who started in the ‘traditional’ method and now make beats and build tracks alongside directing musicians in studio sessions. And to use my example of vocal recording, there are also people who work as a ‘vocal producer’ to fill the gap between the beat maker and mixer.

Like everything else in the world, music production is changing. Draw from as many influences as possible and focus on what’s coming out of the speakers to make sure it’s as good as it can possibly be, and ignore anyone who tells you you’re going about it the wrong way (including me!).

More Recording Resources From Dom Morley

Dom is the founder of the Mix Consultancy, a zero risk (money back guarantee) way to get notes on your tracks to help improve the sound. Whether you're an artist who likes to mix all their own work, a composer putting together a pitch on a limited budget, or an engineer who wants a discreet second opinion before sending a mix off to a client - we're here to help.

“I just completed a mix with the help of Dom Morley & The Mix Consultancy. The mix we turned over was qualitatively better than the one I would have gone with on my own.

It's been said that "a mix is never done, it's just abandoned", but the truth is, you *really* do feel a sense of completion and closure having worked with Dom because you know in your heart that you did everything you possibly could to get the best result possible for the client.

The beauty behind the process is that not only do you get a better mix for your client, but Dom's advice contains all kinds of gold that you can borrow and deploy in future mixes.”

Geoff Manchester, Manchester Music

From engineering tips to production advice, EQ and compression basics to mix specifics, we’ll give you the information and guidance that you need to take your mixes to the next level. Find out more here

In addition to the one-to-one advice Dom has produced some excellent online courses;

• Everything You Need To Know About Recording Vocals
  Preproduction, DAW set-up, preparing the studio, psychology, equipment. Literally everything you need to know.

• Mixing 101

  This is a short, free, mini-course on the four things that you really need to know in order to get great mixes, and the four things that you really don't!

Photo by Andreas Forsberg on Unsplash