Why Do I Need A Producer?

Why Do I Need A Producer?

by Jeff Cripps

THE QUOTE: Mate, I'm tellin' you, I wrote the song, I sing the song, the band's been playing the song for a year, not only do we not need a producer, we'll go into the studio and get it first take - I GUARANTEE IT!!!!

Here's the man who bought shares in ONE-TEL and supported Simon Creen!

THE FACT: the only "dud" album The Beatles recorded was the one without a producer! Let It Be - they got it so wrong, they released it twice 34 years apart.

When Alannis Morisset recorded her "Jagged Little Pill" album that went on to sell 10 million copies or more, she basically lived with her producer for 3 months. Was it because she liked him? No, they had a job to do.

When the Bee Gees record an album they have a producer. This is the band that Barry Gibb is in, the guy who has written and produced more hit songs than anyone EVER. That's EVER. Not this year or since Kylie was in Neighbours but EVER.

Here's a guy who produced an album for Barbra Streisand successfully. Think George W. Bush has a hard job? Forget it. Producing a Barbra Streisand album is a hard job!

When The Bee Gees do a record, they get a producer, the man who is a producers' producer gets a producer. Why is that do you say? Well I'm glad you asked.

THE JOB: There is no 100% accurate "job description" for a producer, but I'll tell you what I do, which wouldn't be far from the truth.

Unlike a producer in a Hollywood movie, whose job it is to get the money for a film, a record producer basically tries to get the most out of the songs, the musos, the engineer, out of everyone, to get the best possible end product, which gives the band and the CD the best chance of succeeding. When a producer listens to the radio, or checks out a CD, it's a crime. He can't view it passively, he immediately goes "wow that's great, why is it great, oh, that's a great chord at the right time, great melody change there, gee that loop sounds great when it comes in, the lyric is exactly perfect for the vibe"etc, etc. It's a sad by-product of a life spent studying music and songs, but it sure comes in handy when your gig in life is being a producer.

Often, you can go through CD's with out-takes or other versions of songs to hear the different ways the song has developed and almost always, the best version of the song is the version we all know and love, THE HIT VERSION. The man who's decision this is, yep, the producer.

Yeah, I know what your saying. I'm in a band, we play 2 times a week, we really GO OFF, every gig, everyone loves us, all's we gotta do is go into the studio, put the songs down, all first takes, as is, throw it out into the record shops and Bob's your Uncle. Well, let me tell you, Bob's not your Uncle, he's never heard of you. It's not that easy. It should be, but it's not.

Quite often a band will come into the studio, with little or no experience in a studio - the drummer won't know that if the song is in the key of "A" and his snare drum is tuned to "A flat" the drum sound will suck. If you didn't know that you could, (or should) tune a drum to a pitch, then I have already succeeded in explaining why you need a producer. You can now stop reading and go out and play - the rest of you will need to stay indoors.

There's heaps of stuff like this, e.g. sometimes a song will sound better with a Gibson rather than a Fender, hey I think the chorus needs strings, hey, you're out of tune, Mr drummer you're out of time.

A producer is in a great position to be objective about the songs and the performances of the songs.......the drummer will probably take the word of an outside opinion from the producer that he has sped up rather than from the bass player, who has just married the drummer's girlfriend of 7 years.

A producer will be in a great position to inform the guitarist that the 3 minute guitar extravaganza including Nazi war propaganda samples and satanic quotes at the beginning of their new single "I Love You, I Really Love You, That's Why I Love You My Love" is possibly just a touch over the top and might in some way blow their chances of being played on easy listening 106.1 FM. However, the band likes the idea, cause the whole band has been reading Nazi War Stories on their last tour - it's good to have an experienced outside stabilising influence.

If you listen to any radio station, whether they play Tool, Talking Heads, T-Bone Walker or Tchaikovsky they'll play the hits, have a close listen to these songs. Hits have one thing in common, there is no dead wood. The best thing about a hit song, whether it's from an oldie band or a new hip-hop genius (very tempted here to say something about that being an oxymoron, but I will resist the urge):

The Beatles - She Loves You, bang into the chorus and through to the end
Wham - Wake Me Up Before You Go Go - Great recording, great clear vocal and chorus, everyone knows it (almost everyone hates it, but if you're drunk you'll dance to it!)
Nirvana - Teen Spirit, intro, verse, then into the big pay off chorus
silverchair - The Greatest View = the greatest song, interesting from minute one till the end - no dead wood -

They're all great to listen to. Why? Because they're all wall to wall song, no dud bits, no dud guitar solos, no out of tune vocals (Lou Reed and Bob Dylan withstanding), no suspect drum fills, wall to wall FUN!!! But let me state the obvious - that's why they were hits, don't think that songs are only hits because someone bribes someone, or a band is fashionable at the time. 5-10-20-50 years down the line radio only plays the good stuff.

The man whose job it is to get these songs THAT GOOD, is The Producer. It was producer George Martin who suggested that The Beatles should put the chorus of She Loves You up front not after the first verse. Good idea George! I've had 3 instances where a band has come into the studio, with songs for the album and has played me a song that they don't really like but played it for me anyway, just in case and on 3 occasions I've said "that's the one, that's track No-1". They of course think I'm a big time loser, a totally bad judge of music and songs in general, but 3 times out of 3, the song has been track No-1 on the album.

Def Leppard had just spent 3 years on their Hysteria album and had 11 tracks, everyone was happy to go home after 3 years and put the album out, but the guitarist was doodling in the control room with a song during the dying days of the mixing sessions and the producer Mutt Lange said "that's it, we need that song to complete the album". Hello!!!!!! Everyone immediately said "yeah Mutt, I really feel like spending just one more month doing this BLOODY album" - NOT - everyone would have hated him, the band, the record company, the publicity people, the wives and girlfriends (should they ever meet). But he was right. The album stalled at 3 million copies sold then the single "Pour Some Sugar On Me" reignited the album to sell 12 million copies - good onya Mutt.

So I guess the question is, did this guy earn his money? Was it worthwhile to have a producer, would they have sold 12 million copies without him?

But in the real world, here in Sydney, Australia with an album to record in a lot less than the 3 years that Def Leppard had to record, don't even talk about the budget! The bottom line is that a producer can SAVE YOU MONEY. I have heaps of bands that ring me and say "we recorded a demo at Big Fart Studio and the demo stinks!". It sounded great on the night, it was loud, but now we have to record it again!

This is a waste of money. If your gear box packs up in your car you hate it, but you get a mechanic to fix it, it costs you, but it's fixed and you move on. It's only a REAL hassle when it's not fixed. That's a waste of time AND money - a very bad combination.

How can you avoid the "un-fixed gear box syndrome?"

That's what you pay a producer for. That's his gig - fix the gear box once and fix it right!

It’s also the producer’s gig to get you to a good, cost efficient studio. The hourly rate of a studio is not always as it seems. Getting back to the gearbox, it’s better to hire a great mechanic @ $50/hr who will fix the gear box in 3 hours, cause he knows what he’s doing, rather than the other bloke down the road who’s 100 meters closer, but is a dud mechanic who charges $30/hr but takes 6 hours to fix it, but not fix it well - get the idea?

Mechanic No-1: $150 perfect job

Mechanic No-2: $180, cheaper hourly rate, dud job!!

A mate of mine told me he ran into a muso mate who told him that he’d just finished recording with an engineer guy who had offered him recording time at ½ studio rate. But, he said, the guy took twice as long as his usual studio guy did, like getting drum sounds, guitar sounds, mixing etc, and it turned out crap anyway - BUT HE WAS CHEAPER BY THE HOUR. The job ended up costing him more with the cheap guy, than his usual studio guy with a higher hourly rate.

Another cost saving adventure is something called “Pre-Production”. What happens here is the producer gets with the band and runs through the songs and fine tunes the song arrangements, drum fills, guitar bits and pieces, keyboard sounds, basically gets the band ready to record without the pressure that these are final takes. This session is usually taped to see how they sound and might include different versions of the songs, different tempos, different arrangements etc, so the band can go away and rehearse the changes rather than having to change the song at the full-on recording session, which can be a bit daunting. This “pre-production” is a great time for the band and the producer to get to know each other in a more casual setting, and it’s a great time to sort out things like hums and buzzes from guitars that only seem to rear their ugly heads in places like recording studios and really, really important gigs!

So the next step would be the recording session, a typical session might go like this.......

Band comes in and they set up and get guitar drum and bass sounds - sounds easy enough, except the drummer has drum skins from 1988, the guitarist has 4 strings not 6 cause he thought studios sold guitar strings, and the bass player thought the studio provided the bass... only joking here, but to avoid any possible misunderstandings of what is required for the session, the producer has a meeting with the band to sort this stuff out. When things are sorted out IT SAVES TIME.
Band plays a song, the drummer plays too many fills, the guitarist has too much reverb on his guitar, the bass player is playing a "fiddly" bass part on the chorus, when really a good AC/DC bottom "E" pump would be better for the song and the singer sounds like he's singing "Rock and Rule" instead of "Rock and Roll".

The Producer is now earning his money by sorting out a few of these details, sorting out the songs that have more dead wood than an Ash Wednesday Forest, which if you remember, is the stuff that hit songs don't have - DEAD WOOD!!
The songs have been sorted out, they all sound like hits to all involved, the record company is happy, the band is happy, the girlfriends and wives are happy (they still haven't met) and all is well.
Now the magical part - THE MIX. Don't forget, that if the mix was left to the band, the drums would be loud, the guitar would be louder, the bass would be louder still and the vocals would be even louder than that, because of "vested interests", it is always better to have an unbiased ear to mix the songs. Again Mr Producer earns his money, because if he and the engineer get it right first time, there is no waste, if the songs need to be re-mixed, not only is it a drag and hard work again as well as a waste of money, it is the Producer who knows how much reverb, chorus, compression, vocals, bass, guitar, keyboards, bass, treble, mids and backward samples to use on the mix. Does any band member have this thorough knowledge of mixing?

So back to the question, is it a good idea to have a producer who can prepare a band for the recording session, start and continue the session smoothly, with minimal waste of time, sort sounds out so that everything sounds great rather than ordinary, present the songs to the public "best dressed" rather than in rags, having the chance for the CD to go GOLD rather than LEAD.

Don't forget one thing that is often overlooked - if you put yourselves in the hands of a good producer, you will learn from a professional. As a producer, I have learned great things from great musicians and bands, the reason I know lots about guitars and drums etc. is because I have been taught lots by great musicians. My No-1 session guitarist has taught me heaps about great guitar sounds cause he has great guitars and amps, so now I know when I hear a guitar sound, I know if it's great, good, crook or sucks and I know what to do to sort it out. That's why I have a gun (joking!!). Similarly, knowledge is passed down from a producer to a band. So whatever you're paying him, there is payback in more ways than one.

A good producer will teach a band about song structure, guitar sounds, vocal phrasing, drum tuning, dedication and will inspire the band in general and this is while you are recording the CD. If you've ever seen the movie The Wizard Of Oz, it's kinda like this, the characters are hell bent on getting to where they're going not realizing how much they are learning until the end. That's what it's like recording an album. Lots of bands have reported back to me, that after recording, they go on to play so much better live, their fans notice it and the gigs go off better.

To have a producer or not, I wonder? What's that I hear - "Somewhere Over The Rainbow"... gotta go... see ya'.

Printed with permission.
Jeff Cripps
A# Sharp Recording Studio
Email: jeff@asharp.com.au
Phone: +612 9153 9988