A record producer is a recording project's creative and technical leader, commanding studio time and coaching artists, and in popular genres typically creates the song's very sound and structure.
Virgil Moorefield
Virgil Moorefield (born August 9, 1956) is a composer and intermedia artist based in Rüschlikon, Switzerland.
Moorefield's work focuses primarily on live acoustic performance, electronic processing of acoustic signals, and live visual music ("Fi ...
"Introduction"
''The Producer as Composer: Shaping the Sounds of Popular Music'' (Cambridge, MA & London, UK: MIT Press
The MIT Press is a university press affiliated with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, Massachusetts (United States). It was established in 1962.
History
The MIT Press traces its origins back to 1926 when MIT publish ...
, 2005).Richard James Burgess
Richard James Burgess (born 29 June 1949) is an English musician, singer, songwriter, record producer, composer, author, manager, marketer and inventor.
Burgess's music career spans more than 50 years. He came to prominence in the early 1980s a ...
, ''The History of Music Production'' (New York: Oxford University Press
Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print books ...
, 2014)
pp 12–13
[Allan Watson, ''Cultural Production in and Beyond the Recording Studio'' (New York: ]Routledge
Routledge () is a British multinational publisher. It was founded in 1836 by George Routledge, and specialises in providing academic books, journals and online resources in the fields of the humanities, behavioural science, education, law ...
, 2015)
pp 25–27
The record producer, or simply the producer, is likened to film director and art director.
The
executive producer, on the other hand, enables the recording project through entrepreneurship, and an
audio engineer operates the technology.
Varying by project, the producer may or may not choose all of the artists.
If employing only
synthesized or
sampled
Sample or samples may refer to:
Base meaning
* Sample (statistics), a subset of a population – complete data set
* Sample (signal), a digital discrete sample of a continuous analog signal
* Sample (material), a specimen or small quantity of so ...
instrumentation, the producer may be the sole artist.
Conversely, some artists do their own production.
Some producers are their own engineers, operating the technology across the project: preproduction, recording,
mixing, and
mastering. Record producers' precursors were "A&R men", who likewise could blend entrepreneurial, creative, and technical roles,
but often exercised scant creative influence,
as record production still focused, into the 1950s, on simply improving the record's sonic match to the artists' own live performance.
Advances in recording technology, especially the 1940s advent of
tape recording
An audio tape recorder, also known as a tape deck, tape player or tape machine or simply a tape recorder, is a sound recording and reproduction device that records and plays back sounds usually using magnetic tape for storage. In its present ...
—which
Les Paul promptly innovated further to develop
multitrack recording—and the 1950s rise of electronic instruments, turned record production into a specialty.
In popular music, then, producers like
George Martin
Sir George Henry Martin (3 January 1926 – 8 March 2016) was an English record producer, arranger, composer, conductor, and musician. He was commonly referred to as the " Fifth Beatle" because of his extensive involvement in each of the ...
,
Phil Spector
Harvey Phillip Spector (born Harvey Philip Spector; December 26, 1939January 16, 2021) was an American record producer and songwriter, best known for his innovative recording practices and entrepreneurship in the 1960s, followed decades later by ...
and
Brian Eno led its evolution into its present use of elaborate techniques and unrealistic sounds, creating songs impossible to originate live.
Greg Kot
Greg Kot (born March 3, 1957) is an American music journalist and author. From 1990 until 2020, Kot was the rock music critic at the ''Chicago Tribune'', where he covered popular music and reported on music-related social, political and busines ...
"What does a record producer do?"
BBC Culture, '' BBC.com'', 10 Mar 2016. After the 1980s, production's move from analog to digital further expanded possibilities.
By now, DAWs, or
digital audio workstation
A digital audio workstation (DAW) is an electronic device or application software used for recording, editing and producing audio files. DAWs come in a wide variety of configurations from a single software program on a laptop, to an integrat ...
s, like
Logic Pro
Logic Pro is a digital audio workstation (DAW) and MIDI sequencer software application for the macOS platform. It was originally created in the early 1990s as Notator Logic, or Logic, by German software developer C-Lab which later went by E ...
and
Pro Tools
Pro Tools is a digital audio workstation (DAW) developed and released by Avid Technology (formerly Digidesign) for Microsoft Windows and macOS. It is used for music creation and production, sound for picture ( sound design, audio post-produ ...
, turn an ordinary computer into a production console,
[Jay Kadis]
"Digital audio workstations"
''CCRMA.Stanford.edu'', Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics
Stanford University has many centers and institutes dedicated to the study of various specific topics. These centers and institutes may be within a department, within a school but across departments, an independent laboratory, institute or center ...
, Stanford University, 2006–2013, retrieved 11 Sep 2020. whereby a solitary novice can become a skilled producer in a thrifty home studio.
[Richard James Burgess, ''The History of Music Production'' (New York: Oxford University Press, 2013), p]
199
200
[Melinda Newman]
"Where are all the female music producers?"
''Billboard.com
''Billboard'' (stylized as ''billboard'') is an American music and entertainment magazine published weekly by Penske Media Corporation. The magazine provides music charts, news, video, opinion, reviews, events, and style related to the music ...
,'' MRC Media and Info, 19 Jan 2018. In the 2010s, efforts began to increase the prevalence of producers and engineers who are women, heavily outnumbered by men and prominently accoladed only in classical music.
[Nate Hertweck]
"Recording Academy Task Force On Diversity and Inclusion announces initiative to expand opportunities for female producers and engineers"
''Grammy.com'', Recording Academy
The Recording Academy (formally the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences; abbreviated NARAS) is an American learned academy of musicians, producers, recording engineers, and other musical professionals. It is famous for its Grammy Aw ...
, 1 Feb 2019.
Production overview
As a broad project, the creation of a music recording may be split across three specialists: the
executive producer, who oversees business partnerships and financing, the vocal producer or vocal arranger, who aids vocal performance via expert critique and coaching of vocal technique, and the record producer or music producer, who, often called simply the producer, directs the overall creative process of recording the song in its final mix.
The record producer's roles can include gathering ideas, composing music, choosing
session musicians, proposing changes to song arrangements, coaching the performers, controlling sessions, supervising the
audio mixing
Audio mixing is the process by which multiple sounds are combined into one or more channels. In the process, a source's volume level, frequency content, dynamics, and panoramic position are manipulated or enhanced. This practical, aesthetic ...
, and, in some cases, supervising the
audio mastering
Mastering, a form of audio post production, is the process of preparing and transferring recorded audio from a source containing the final mix to a data storage device (the master), the source from which all copies will be produced (via me ...
. A producer may give creative control to the artists themselves, taking a supervisory or advisory role instead. As to qualifying for a
Grammy nomination, the
Recording Academy
The Recording Academy (formally the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences; abbreviated NARAS) is an American learned academy of musicians, producers, recording engineers, and other musical professionals. It is famous for its Grammy Aw ...
defines a producer:
The person who has overall creative and technical control of the entire recording project, and the individual recording sessions that are part of that project. He or she is present in the recording studio or at the location recording and works directly with the artist and engineer. The producer makes creative and aesthetic decisions that realize both the artist's and label's goals in the creation of musical content. Other duties include, but are not limited to; keeping budgets and schedules, adhering to deadlines, hiring musicians, singers, studios and engineers, overseeing other staffing needs and editing (Classical projects).
The producer often selects and collaborates with a mixing engineer, who focuses on the especially technological aspects of the recording process, namely, operating the electronic equipment and blending the raw, recorded tracks of the chosen performances, whether vocal or instrumental, into a
''mix'', either stereo or surround sound. Then a mastering engineer further adjusts this recording for distribution on the chosen media. A producer may work on only one or two songs or on an artist's entire album, helping develop the album's overall vision. The record producers may also take on the role of executive producer, managing the budget, schedules, contracts, and negotiations.
Historical developments
A&R team
(Artists and Repertoires)
In the 1880s, the record industry began by simply having the artist perform at a
phonograph.
Clive Thompson Clive Thompson may refer to:
*Clive Thompson (businessman) (born 1943), Deputy Chairman of Strategic Equity Capital
*Clive Thompson (journalist)
Clive Thompson (born 30 October 1968) is a Canadian freelance journalist, blogger, and science and t ...
"How the phonograph changed music forever"
''Smithsonian Magazine
''Smithsonian'' is the official journal published by the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. The first issue was published in 1970.
History
The history of ''Smithsonian'' began when Edward K. Thompson, the retired editor of ''Life'' mag ...
'', Jan 2016. In 1924, the trade journal ''
Talking Machine World
''The Talking Machine World'' was a monthly magazine published in New York City between 1905 and 1928. During that time it was the main trade magazine dealing with phonographs and early sound recordings, including cylinders and discs. In later yea ...
'', covering the phonography and record industry, reported that Eddie King,
Victor Records
The Victor Talking Machine Company was an American recording company and phonograph manufacturer that operated independently from 1901 until 1929, when it was acquired by the Radio Corporation of America and subsequently operated as a subsidi ...
' manager of the "New York
artist and repertoire
Artists and repertoire (colloquially abbreviated to A&R) is the division of a record label or music publishing company that is responsible for talent scouting and overseeing the artistic development of recording artists (singers, instrumentalist ...
department", had planned a set of recordings in Los Angeles.
[Brian Ward & Patrick Huber, ''A&R Pioneers: Architects of American Roots Music on Record'' (Nashville, TN: Vanderbilt University Press, 2018)]
pp 20–21
Later, folklorist
Archie Green
Archie Green (June 29, 1917 – March 22, 2009) was an American folklorist specializing in laborlore (defined as the special folklore of workers) and American folk music. Devoted to understanding vernacular culture, he gathered and commente ...
called this perhaps the earliest printed use of ''A&R man''.
Actually, it says neither "A&R man" nor even "A&R", an initialism perhaps coined by ''
Billboard'' magazine in 1946, and entering wide use in the late 1940s.
In the 1920s and 1930s, A&R executives, like
Ben Selvin
Benjamin Bernard Selvin (March 5, 1898 – July 15, 1980) was an American musician, bandleader, and record producer. He was known as the Dean of Recorded Music.
Selvin was born in New York City, United States, the son of Jewish Russian immigran ...
at
Columbia Records,
Nathaniel Shilkret
Nathaniel Shilkret (December 25, 1889 – February 18, 1982) was an American musician, composer, conductor and musical director.
Early career
Shilkret (originally named Natan Schüldkraut) was born in New York City, United States, to parents ...
at Victor Records, and Bob Haring at
Brunswick Records
Brunswick Records is an American record label founded in 1916.
History
From 1916
Records under the Brunswick label were first produced by the Brunswick-Balke-Collender Company, a company based in Dubuque, Iowa which had been manufacturing prod ...
became the precursors of record producers, supervising recording and often leading session orchestras.
[Brian Ward & Patrick Huber, ]
A&R Pioneers: Architects of American Roots Music on Record
' (Nashville, TN: Vanderbilt University Press
Vanderbilt University Press is a university press that is part of Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee.
Vanderbilt University Press is the principal publishing arm of Vanderbilt University. The Press selects, edits, and markets scholarl ...
, 2018)
pp 278–281
During the 1940s,
major record labels increasingly opened official A&R departments, whose roles included supervision of recording.
Meanwhile, independent recording studios opened, helping originate ''record producer'' as a specialty. But despite a tradition of some A&R men writing music, ''record production'' still referred to just the manufacturing of record discs.
Record producers
After
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, pioneering A&R managers who transitioned influentially to record production as now understood, while sometimes owning independent labels, include
J. Mayo Williams
Jay Mayo "Ink" Williams (September 25, 1894 – January 2, 1980) was a pioneering African-American producer of recorded blues music. Some historians have claimed that Ink Williams earned his nickname by his ability to get the signatures of t ...
and
John Hammond.
Upon moving from Columbia Records to
Mercury Records
Mercury Records is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group. It had significant success as an independent operation in the 1940s and 1950s. Smash Records and Fontana Records were sub labels of Mercury. In the United States, it i ...
, Hammond appointed
Mitch Miller
Mitchell William Miller (July 4, 1911 – July 31, 2010) was an American choral conductor, record producer, record-industry executive, and professional oboist. He was involved in almost all aspects of the industry, particularly as a conductor ...
to lead Mercury's popular recordings in New York.
Miller then produced country-pop crossover hits by
Patti Page and by
Frankie Laine, moved from Mercury to Columbia, and became a leading A&R man of the 1950s.
During the decade, A&R executives increasingly directed songs' sonic signatures, although many still simply teamed singers with musicians, while yet others exercised virtually no creative influence.
The term ''record producer'' in its current meaning—the creative director of song production—appearing in a 1953 issue of ''
Billboard'' magazine, became widespread in the 1960s.
Still, a formal distinction was elusive for some time more.
A&R managers might still be creative directors, like
William "Mickey" Stevenson
William "Mickey" Stevenson (born January 4, 1937) is an American former songwriter and record producer for the Motown group of labels from the early days of Berry Gordy's company until 1967.
Life and career
He was born William Stevenson and, a ...
, hired by
Berry Gordy
Berry Gordy III (born November 28, 1929), known professionally as Berry Gordy Jr., is a retired American record executive, record producer, songwriter, film producer and television producer. He is best known as the founder of the Motown record l ...
, at the
Motown record label.
Tape recording
In 1947, the American market gained audio recording onto magnetic tape. At the record industry's 1880s dawn, rather, recording was done by
phonograph, etching the sonic waveform vertically ''into'' a cylinder.
[Richard James Burgess, ''The History of Music Production'' (New York: Oxford University Press, 2014)]
pp 50–54
By the 1930s, a gramophone etched it laterally ''across'' a disc.
[Robert Philip, "Pianists on record in the early twentieth century", in David Rowland, ed., ''The Cambridge Companion to the Piano'' (Cambridge, UK: ]Cambridge University Press
Cambridge University Press is the university press of the University of Cambridge. Granted letters patent by Henry VIII of England, King Henry VIII in 1534, it is the oldest university press
A university press is an academic publishing hou ...
, 1998), p
75
€“77. Constrained in tonal range, whether bass or treble, and in
dynamic range
Dynamic range (abbreviated DR, DNR, or DYR) is the ratio between the largest and smallest values that a certain quantity can assume. It is often used in the context of Signal (electrical engineering), signals, like sound and light. It is measured ...
, records made a grand, concert piano sound like a small, upright piano, and maximal duration was four and a half minutes.
Selections and performance were often altered accordingly, and playing this disc—the wax master—destroyed it.
The finality often caused anxiety that restrained performance to prevent error.
In the 1940s, during World War II, the Germans refined audio recording onto magnetic tape—uncapping recording duration and allowing immediate playback, rerecording, and editing—a technology that premised emergence of record producers in their current roles.
Multitrack recording
Early in the recording industry, a record was attained by simply having all of the artists perform together live in one take.
In 1945,
[Brent Hurtig with J. D. Sharp, ''Multi-Track Recording for Musicians: The Complete Step-by-Step Guide for Beginners and Reference for Professionals'' (Cupertino, CA: GPI Publications, 1988 / Van Nuys, CA: ]Alfred Publishing
Alfred may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
*'' Alfred J. Kwak'', Dutch-German-Japanese anime television series
* ''Alfred'' (Arne opera), a 1740 masque by Thomas Arne
* ''Alfred'' (Dvořák), an 1870 opera by AntonÃn Dvořák
*"Alfred (Interl ...
, 1988)
pp 8–10
by recording a musical element while playing a previously recorded record,
Les Paul developed a recording technique called "sound on sound".
By this, the final recording could be built piece by piece and tailored, effecting an editing process.
In one case, Paul produced a song via 500 recorded discs.
But, besides the tedium of this process, it serially degraded the sound quality of previously recorded elements, rerecorded as ambient sound.
Yet in 1948, Paul adopted tape recording, enabling truly multitrack recording by a new technique, "
overdubbing".
To enable overdubbing, Paul revised the tape recorder itself by adding a second playback head, and terming it the ''preview head''.
Joining the preexisting recording head, erase head, and playback head, the preview head allows the artist to hear the extant recording over headphones playing it in synchrony, "in sync", with the present performance being recorded alone on an isolated track.
This isolation of multiple tracks enables countless mixing possibilities. Producers began recording initially only the "bed tracks"—the
rhythm section, including the
bassline, drums, and rhythm guitar—whereas vocals and instrument solos could be added later. A
horn section
A horn section is a group of musicians playing horns. In an orchestra or concert band, it refers to the musicians who play the "French" horn, and in a British-style brass band it is the tenor horn players. In many popular music genres, the te ...
, for example, could record a week later, and a
string section another week later. A singer could perform her own backup vocals, or a guitarist could play 15 layers.
Electronic instruments
![Phil Spector with MFQ 1965](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/65/Phil_Spector_with_MFQ_1965.png)
Across the 1960s, popular music increasingly switched from acoustic instruments, like piano,
upright bass
The double bass (), also known simply as the bass () (or by other names), is the largest and lowest-pitched bowed (or plucked) string instrument in the modern symphony orchestra (excluding unorthodox additions such as the octobass). Similar ...
,
acoustic guitar, and
brass instruments, to electronic instruments, like
electric guitar
An electric guitar is a guitar that requires external amplification in order to be heard at typical performance volumes, unlike a standard acoustic guitar (however combinations of the two - a semi-acoustic guitar and an electric acoustic gu ...
s,
keyboards
Keyboard may refer to:
Text input
* Keyboard, part of a typewriter
* Computer keyboard
** Keyboard layout, the software control of computer keyboards and their mapping
** Keyboard technology, computer keyboard hardware and firmware
Music
* Musi ...
, and
synthesizers, employing
instrument amplifier
An instrument amplifier is an electronic device that converts the often barely audible or purely electronic signal of a musical instrument into a larger electronic signal to feed to a loudspeaker. An instrument amplifier is used with musical ins ...
s and speakers. These could mimic acoustic instruments or create utterly new sounds. Soon, by combining the capabilities of tape, multitrack recording, and electronic instruments, producers like
Phil Spector
Harvey Phillip Spector (born Harvey Philip Spector; December 26, 1939January 16, 2021) was an American record producer and songwriter, best known for his innovative recording practices and entrepreneurship in the 1960s, followed decades later by ...
,
George Martin
Sir George Henry Martin (3 January 1926 – 8 March 2016) was an English record producer, arranger, composer, conductor, and musician. He was commonly referred to as the " Fifth Beatle" because of his extensive involvement in each of the ...
, and
Joe Meek
Robert George "Joe" Meek (5 April 1929 – 3 February 1967) was an English record producer, sound engineer and songwriter who pioneered space age and experimental pop music. He also assisted in the development of recording practices like over ...
rendered sounds unattainable live.
Similarly, in
jazz fusion,
Teo Macero
Attilio Joseph "Teo" Macero (October 30, 1925 – February 19, 2008) was an American jazz saxophonist, composer, and record producer. He was a producer at Columbia Records for twenty years. Macero produced Miles Davis' '' Bitches Brew'', and ...
, producing
Miles Davis
Miles Dewey Davis III (May 26, 1926September 28, 1991) was an American trumpeter, bandleader, and composer. He is among the most influential and acclaimed figures in the history of jazz and 20th-century music. Davis adopted a variety of musi ...
's 1970 album ''
Bitches Brew'', spliced sections of extensive improvisation sessions.
Performer-producer
In the 1960s, rock acts like
the Beatles
The Beatles were an English Rock music, rock band, formed in Liverpool in 1960, that comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are regarded as the Cultural impact of the Beatles, most influential band of al ...
,
the Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones are an English Rock music, rock band formed in London in 1962. Active for six decades, they are one of the most popular and enduring bands of the album era, rock era. In the early 1960s, the Rolling Stones pioneered the g ...
, and
the Kinks
The Kinks were an English rock band formed in Muswell Hill, north London, in 1963 by brothers Ray and Dave Davies. They are regarded as one of the most influential rock bands of the 1960s. The band emerged during the height of British rhyt ...
produced some of their own songs, although many such songs are officially credited to specialist producers. Yet especially influential was the Beach Boys, whose band leader
Brian Wilson took over from his father Murry within a couple of years after the band's commercial breakthrough. By 1964, Wilson had taken Spector's techniques to unseen sophistication. Wilson alone produced all Beach Boy recordings between 1963 and 1967. Using multiple studios and multiple attempts of instrumental and vocal tracks, Wilson selected the best combinations of performance and audio quality, and used tape editing to assemble a composite performance.
Digital production
![Brian Wilson 1976 crop](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/70/Brian_Wilson_1976_crop.jpg)
The 1980s advent of digital processes and formats rapidly replaced analog processes and formats, namely, tape and vinyl. Although recording onto quality tape, at least half an inch wide and traveling 15 inches per second, had limited "tape hiss" to silent sections, digital's higher
signal-to-noise ratio, SNR, abolished it.
Digital also imparted to the music a perceived "pristine" sound quality, if also a loss of analog recordings' perceived "warm" quality and bass better rounded.
[David Simmons, ''Analog Recording: Using Analog Gear in Today's Home Studio'' (San Francisco: Backbeat Books, 2006)]
pp 26–27
Yet whereas editing tape media requires physically locating the target audio on the ribbon, cutting there, and splicing pieces, editing digital media offers inarguable advantages in ease, efficiency, and possibilities.
In the 1990s, digital production reached affordable home computers via production software. By now, recording and mixing are often centralized in DAWs,
digital audio workstation
A digital audio workstation (DAW) is an electronic device or application software used for recording, editing and producing audio files. DAWs come in a wide variety of configurations from a single software program on a laptop, to an integrat ...
s—for example,
Pro Tools
Pro Tools is a digital audio workstation (DAW) developed and released by Avid Technology (formerly Digidesign) for Microsoft Windows and macOS. It is used for music creation and production, sound for picture ( sound design, audio post-produ ...
,
Logic Pro
Logic Pro is a digital audio workstation (DAW) and MIDI sequencer software application for the macOS platform. It was originally created in the early 1990s as Notator Logic, or Logic, by German software developer C-Lab which later went by E ...
,
Ableton
Ableton AG is a German music software company that produces and distributes the production and performance program Ableton Live and a collection of related instruments and sample libraries, as well as their own hardware controller Ableton Push. ...
,
Cubase
Cubase is a digital audio workstation (DAW) developed by Steinberg for music and MIDI recording, arranging and editing. The first version, which was originally only a MIDI sequencer and ran on the Atari ST computer, was released in 1989. Cut-dow ...
,
Reason
Reason is the capacity of consciously applying logic by drawing conclusions from new or existing information, with the aim of seeking the truth. It is closely associated with such characteristically human activities as philosophy, science, ...
, and
FL Studio—for which
plugins, by third parties, effect
virtual studio technology
Virtual Studio Technology (VST) is an audio plug-in software interface that integrates software synthesizers and effects units into digital audio workstations. VST and similar technologies use digital signal processing to simulate traditional r ...
.
DAWs fairly standard in the industry are Logic Pro and Pro Tools.
[Kiesha Joseph,]
"Audio recording software: Avid Pro Tools vs. Apple Log Pro X"
, ''Blog.First.edu'', F.I.R.S.T. Institute, 11 Feb 2016, whose webpage footer reports, "Accredited by ACCET", perhaps the Accrediting Council for Continuing Education and Training. Physical devices involved include the main mixer,
MIDI
MIDI (; Musical Instrument Digital Interface) is a technical standard that describes a communications protocol, digital interface, and electrical connectors that connect a wide variety of electronic musical instruments, computers, and ...
controllers to communicate among equipment, the recording device itself, and perhaps effects gear that is outboard. Yet literal recording is sometimes still analog, onto tape, whereupon the raw recording is
converted to a digital signal for processing and editing, as some producers still find audio advantages to recording onto tape.
Conventionally, tape is more forgiving of
overmodulation
Overmodulation is the condition that prevails in telecommunication when the instantaneous level of the modulating signal exceeds the value necessary to produce 100% modulation of the carrier. In the sense of this definition, it is almost always con ...
, whereby dynamic peaks exceed the maximal recordable signal level: tape's limitation, a physical property, is magnetic capacity, which tapers offs, smoothing the overmodulated waveform even at a signal nearly 15 decibels too "hot", whereas a digital recording is ruined by harsh distortion of "
clipping
Clipping may refer to:
Words
* Clipping (morphology), the formation of a new word by shortening it, e.g. "ad" from "advertisement"
* Clipping (phonetics), shortening the articulation of a speech sound, usually a vowel
* Clipping (publications) ...
" at any overshoot.
In digital recording, however, a recent advancement,
32-bit float, enables DAWs to undo clipping. Still, some criticize digital instruments and workflows for excess automation, allegedly impairing creative or sonic control. In any case, as production technology has drastically changed, so have the knowledge demands, although DAWs enables novices, even teenagers at home, to learn production independently.
Some have attained professional competence before ever working with an artist.
Hip hop production
In the 2000s, with the advent of technology that made traditional record production accessible, especially with hip hop beatmaking and electronic music. Within these genres, the term producer is applied to a number of roles and has popularized the use of more niche terms and credits including executive producer, co-producer, assistant producer, and additional and miscellaneous production to differentiate contributions.
Women in producing
![Audio mixer faders](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/85/Audio_mixer_faders.jpg)
Among female record producers,
Sylvia Moy was the first at
Motown,
Gail Davies the first on Nashville's
Music Row
Music Row is a historic district located southwest of downtown Nashville, Tennessee, United States. Widely considered the heart of Nashville's entertainment industry, Music Row has also become a metonymous nickname for the music industry as a w ...
, and
Ethel Gabriel
Ethel Nagy Gabriel (November 16, 1921 – March 23, 2021) was an American record producer and record executive with a four-decade career at RCA Victor. She produced over 2,500 music albums including 15 RIAA Certified Gold Records and hits by Elvis ...
, with
RCA
The RCA Corporation was a major American electronics company, which was founded as the Radio Corporation of America in 1919. It was initially a patent trust owned by General Electric (GE), Westinghouse, AT&T Corporation and United Fruit Comp ...
, the first at a
major record label.
Lillian McMurry
Lillian Shedd McMurry (December 30, 1921 – March 18, 1999) was one of the earliest American female record producers and owner of Trumpet Records. She was influential in the development of blues music, particularly through her recordings of Sonn ...
, owning
Trumpet Records
Trumpet Records was an American record company founded by Lillian McMurry in Jackson, Mississippi in 1951. Although it existed for only four years, it was influential.
History
The goal of Trumpet Records was to record musicians from the Mississip ...
, produced influential
blues
Blues is a music genre and musical form which originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads from the Afr ...
records. Meanwhile,
Wilma Cozart Fine produced hundreds of records for
Mercury Records
Mercury Records is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group. It had significant success as an independent operation in the 1940s and 1950s. Smash Records and Fontana Records were sub labels of Mercury. In the United States, it i ...
' classical division. For classical production, three women have won Grammy awards, and
Judith Sherman's 2015 win was her fifth.
Yet in nonclassical, no woman has won
Producer of the Year
The Grammy Award for Producer of the Year, Non-Classical is an honor presented to record producers for quality non- classical music at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards. Honors i ...
, awarded since 1975 and only one even nominated for a record not her own, Linda Perry.
After
Lauren Christy
Lauren Christy is a British singer, songwriter and record producer. Originally a solo artist, she found success as part of the writing production trio The Matrix. The Matrix received numerous Grammy nominations including best producer.
Bio ...
's 2004 nomination,
Linda Perry
Linda Perry (born April 15, 1965) is an American singer-songwriter, musician, and record producer. She was the lead singer and primary songwriter of 4 Non Blondes, and has since founded two record labels and composed and produced hit songs for ...
's 2019 nomination was the next for a woman.
[Elias Leight]
"Linda Perry's Grammy nomination 'is a win for all women producers and engineers' "
'' RollingStone.com'', Rolling Stone, LLC, 7 Dec 2018. On why no woman had ever won it, Perry commented, "I just don't think there are that many women interested."
Across the decades, many female artists have produced their own music. For instance, artists
Kate Bush
Catherine Bush (born 30 July 1958) is an English singer, songwriter, record producer and dancer. In 1978, at the age of 19, she topped the UK Singles Chart for four weeks with her debut single " Wuthering Heights", becoming the first female ...
,
Madonna,
Mariah Carey,
Janet Jackson
Janet Damita Jo Jackson (born May 16, 1966) is an American singer, songwriter, actress, and dancer. She is noted for her innovative, socially conscious and sexually provocative records, as well as elaborate stage shows. Her sound and choreog ...
,
Beyoncé,
Lana Del Rey
Elizabeth Woolridge Grant (born June 21, 1985), known professionally as Lana Del Rey, is an American singer-songwriter. Her music is noted for its cinematic quality and exploration of tragic romance, glamour, and melancholia, with frequent r ...
,
Taylor Swift
Taylor Alison Swift (born December 13, 1989) is an American singer-songwriter. Her discography spans multiple genres, and her vivid songwriting—often inspired by her personal life—has received critical praise and wide media coverage. Bor ...
, and
Lorde have produced or coproduced
and
Ariana Grande who produces and arranges her vocals as well as being an audio engineer. Still among specialists, despite some prominent women, including
Missy Elliott in hip hop and
Sylvia Massy in rock, the vast majority have been men.
Early in the 2010s, asked for insights that she herself had gleaned as a woman who has specialized successfully in the industry, Wendy Page remarked, "The difficulties are usually very short-lived. Once people realize that you can do your job, sexism tends to lower its ugly head."
Still, when tasked to explain her profession's sex disparity, Page partly reasoned that record labels, dominated by men, have been, she said, "mistrustful of giving a woman the reins of an immense, creative project like making a record."
Ultimately, the reasons are multiple and not fully clear, although prominently proposed factors include types of sexism and scarcity of female role models in the profession.
Women producers known for producing records not their own include Sonia Pottinger, Sylvia Robinson and Carla Olson.
In January 2018, a research team led by Stacy L. Smith, founder and director of the
Annenberg Annenberg may refer to:
* Annenberg (surname)
* The Annenberg Foundation, formerly Annenberg/CPB, known for funding educational television and the Annenberg Channel
* The USC Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Southern Calif ...
Inclusion Initiative, based in the
USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism
The USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism comprises a School of Communication and a School of Journalism at the University of Southern California
, mottoeng = "Let whoever earns the palm bear it"
, religious_affiliation = N ...
,
[Communicating and Marketing staff]
"Stereotyped, sexualized and shut out: The plight of women in music"
''Annenberg.USC.edu'', USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism
The USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism comprises a School of Communication and a School of Journalism at the University of Southern California
, mottoeng = "Let whoever earns the palm bear it"
, religious_affiliation = N ...
, University of Southern California, 5 Feb 2019, updated 4 Mar 2019. issued a report, estimating that in the prior several years, about 2% of popular songs' producers were female.
Also that month, ''
Billboard'' magazine queried, "Where are all the female music producers?"
Upon the Annenberg Inclusion Initiative's second annual report, released in February 2019,
[Stacy L. Smith, Marc Choueiti, Katherine Pieper, Hannah Clark, Ariana Case & Sylvia Villanueva]
"Inclusion in the recoding studio? Gender and race/ethnicity of artists, songwriters & producers across 700 popular songs from 2012–2018"
''Annenberg Inclusion Initiative'', University of Southern California, Feb 2019. its department at USC reported, "2018 saw an outcry from artists, executives and other music industry professionals over the lack of women in music" and "the plight of women in music", where women were allegedly being "stereotyped, sexualized, and shut out".
Also in February 2019, the
Recording Academy
The Recording Academy (formally the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences; abbreviated NARAS) is an American learned academy of musicians, producers, recording engineers, and other musical professionals. It is famous for its Grammy Aw ...
's Task Force on Diversity and Inclusion announced an initiative whereby over 200 artists and producers—ranging from
Cardi B and
Taylor Swift
Taylor Alison Swift (born December 13, 1989) is an American singer-songwriter. Her discography spans multiple genres, and her vivid songwriting—often inspired by her personal life—has received critical praise and wide media coverage. Bor ...
to
Maroon 5 and
Quincy Jones
Quincy Delight Jones Jr. (born March 14, 1933) is an American record producer, musician, songwriter, composer, arranger, and film and television producer. His career spans 70 years in the entertainment industry with a record of 80 Grammy Award n ...
—agreed to consider at least two women for each producer or engineer position.
The academy's website, ''Grammy.com'', announced, "This initiative is the first step in a broader effort to improve those numbers and increase diversity and inclusion for all in the music industry."
See also
*
Audio engineering
*
Electronic music
Electronic music is a genre of music that employs electronic musical instruments, digital instruments, or circuitry-based music technology in its creation. It includes both music made using electronic and electromechanical means ( electroa ...
*
Hip hop production
*
Music executive
A music executive or record executive is a person within a record label who works in senior management and makes executive decisions over the label's artists. Their role varies greatly but in essence, they can oversee one, or many, aspects of a re ...
*
Musician
References
Further reading
* Gibson, David and
Maestro Curtis. "The Art of Producing". 1st. Ed. USA. ArtistPro Publishing, 2004.
*
Burgess, Richard James. ''The Art of Music Production''. 4th Ed. UK. Music Sales, 2005.
*
* Hewitt, Michael. ''Music Theory for Computer Musicians''. 1st Ed. USA. Cengage Learning, 2008.
* Gronow, Pekka and Ilpo Saunio (1998). ''An International History of the Recording Industry''. Cited in Moorefield (2005).
* Moorefield, Virgil (2005). ''The Producer as Composer: Shaping the Sounds of Popular Music''.
* Olsen, Eric et al. (1999). ''The Encyclopedia of Record Producers.''
* Zak, Albin. ''The Poetics of Rock: Cutting Tracks, Making Records.'' Berkeley: University of California Press, 2001.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Record Producer
Music production
Occupations in music