What exactly does a record producer do?

I think most of us have a grip on what movie directors do, but record producers work is harder to pin down.

That's Phil Ramone in the thumbnail image.

[dominiguat]

thanks for the video! it helped me get a perspective on this, i been running away from music my whole adult life and have decided to finally commit myself to a life of music!

[billbones]

Good one Steve! Musicians are best at live performance and technical mastery of their instrument. Producers are best at sculpting coherent albums. In terms of making high quality albums it takes excellent musicians and an excellent producer to deliver an exceptional end result. If one of the two are missing then the overall product will always suffer. A quick listen to bandcamp offerings will highlight this. Throw enough shit at a wall and something is bound to stick, but for the thousands of bandcamp offerings I cannot think of a single one that will be considered a masterpiece in 50 years.

[wayneday]

Producer Richard Mohr and his recording engineer Lewis Layton were instrumental in bringing recorded sound out of the dark ages in the 1950's. Their recordings of Fritz Reiner and the Chicago Symphony
for RCA are amazing and sound like they could have been made yesterday.

[tomdaoust]

Good job. Gave me exactly what I was searching for: What does a producer actually do? What are some examples of interactions between the artists and the producer? I'll be back for more. Thank y.

[jackallen]

It sounds basically like a print editor. I used to write blog posts for a website (the owner went to jail and the site is no more, lol) I dealt with a content editor named Elizabeth Vinson. I remember sending the first story I wrote to her and she went over it and sent it back with just minor corrections, things like a slight change in the wording of a passage to make it more clear, or telling me "this is a little wordy can you trim it down a bit?" Or "can you expand on this or that description?" and she would give me an example. It was amazing how just a few little tweaks made a big difference in the finished story. Thanks for the upload!!

[ludochem]

A record producer is like a portrait photographer to me.

[jeffreysrnec]

Steve - you are absolutely correct - the value of a great record producer and how they do it.

[draganantonijevic]

Educational... for many... with lots of examples of real insight.

[OperationPhantom]

Great video, as always! Little tip: maybe put the link to your patreon in the description of the video.

[ProjectOverseer]

The Producer (in a recording studio environment) is (for me) like the conductor in an orchestra. Keeping it all together. Today, many small project studios don't have producers. Normally whoever runs the show is controlling everything i.e. producing, engineering, but not (thankfully) promotions or distribution unless signed to that studio as part of a business deal.

[jayviviano]

Good video. Very true. The roles of music-producers fall under a large umbrella. Many different types in this art-form. Elvis Presley came to mind when you were describing Producer Phil Ramone's approach in the studio w/ some artists. (I mean the way they both would interact with the musicians in the room giving out ideas to tweak and make things a little better.)
Although back in the 1950s (and even 1960s to some degree) many singers/vocalists or musicians did not even get credit for their "Producing roles" in their sessions. Elvis was one of those. Most pop-culture writers and music historians slept on this, or they basically just overlooked it because of this.
But a cpl the engineers & many the professional musicians that worked with Elvis in recording studio over the years described him as one of the most underrated producers/arrangers of that era.
He ran the sessions. Not even debatable.
They all said he was the one in charge making most the important decisions.
He sat down at the piano or grabbed a bass guitar or acoustic, and worked through the arrangement, then showed it to the other musicians what he had in mind.
Sometimes would even do this with the percussion/ drums.
Work with the background singers on their parts of the song.
He'd also suggest key changes and chord changes.... along with lyric changes or additions.
He was also the one (not the engineer or Producer) to pick the best Take, the Master recording to be released.

But usually the official producer assigned by the record label would do little more than watch the clock.
So they're the ones that got the recognition, when it really should have went to Elvis.

Sam Cook is another from that era that ended up working as his own producer in the studio. I mean not in the beginning. In the beginning it was legendary Bumps Blackwell that produced and mentored Sam.
But after that, Sam in his own right, developed into a great Producer.
But most of the time the credit went to the record label Producers (Hugo & Luigi) assigned to oversee Sam sessions. But as with Elvis, the real credit and creative work went to Sam.

But artists like Sam and Elvis were the ones that rolled up their sleeves and were more Hands-On than anyone else in the room.

Anyway, fortunately times Change in the industry and this practice went away so that those in the studio that were actually involved in the creative process started getting more & more acknowledgement & recognition.

It's interesting to think about the different types of Producers that are out there.
But of course with the change of Technology it's a bit harder to compare modern producers, to producing back then.
Non-the-less, interesting topic, interesting to think about and to be aware of that part of the history.

[KRAZEEIZATION]

It’s a grey area but some record producers have a signature sound. I buy albums by certain producers I like.

[longmuskox]

Maybe Steve should consult, for a fee of course, to connect artists with producers that suit them both.

[dnava]

Great video. On a side note, has anyone told you you resemble Larry David with hair.

[Wacoald]

So the best producers are more tweakers than directors? What about classical music? Symphony Orchestra recordings? Who was Karajan's producer. Did he have a close relationship with his producer like pop stars? Hard to imagine Karajan bowing to anyone!

[garysmith]

I can speak on good authority pertaining to this topic.... Our album and it's music was originally under the production of Paul Northfield (you can look him up!), mid stream, our producers changed. Our music which we were playing in 'concert clubs' for a long while underwent many interesting changes... One tune in particular went from 'rock anthem' to a completely different subject. Words were changed, tempo changed, . It was completely changed to suit the theme of the album. We just let the producer do what he was hired to do. Another thing, they attend rehearsals which carry over into the studio for final 'tweaking.. All in a days work. (O:

[eman]

*Ron Fair* is like the modern day *Quincy Jones* as he's a Record Producer / Arranger / Musician. He was the one that Produced *Mary J. - Blidge Be Without You* that went on and became a mega hit. The oringal writer's of the song was *Bryan-Michael Cox* and *Jonta Austin.* The problem with the oringal song was it wasn't fully cooked. It was rejected by the label after it was turned in as the song wasn't to its Commerical starificatory that the label expected because Bryan Michael Cox and Jonta Austin didn't acutally see it all the way through as Mary J. Blidge was singing in the wrong key doing a 3 part harmony that didn't fit the chord progression of the song, there were spaces inbetween to add a String Arrangement, the 8 bar cut and paste structure didn't fit the transition changes of the song. Ron Fair took over the recording project and created a new intro, and bridge, had Mary many parts of the vocal arrangment as she had to re sing the chorus in the correct key. Ron also wrote the additional string Arragment to fill in the spaces that were empty. The song later went on to become a mega hit that was nominated 9 Grammys and won 3 Grammys.

[ChukBuk]

I would think of a producer as a facilitator to the artist. To shape the vision and sound of the artist for a particular idea or project. It would be a give and take kind of process and could result in some truly sonic surprises.

[TheFriday]

Just like what Mutt Lange did for AC DC, Def Leppard, etc

[slimkickens]

Geoff Emerick didn't come in until
Revolver, though. So I wouldn't consider him involved in their early records