SAE Magazine 13-3

54 Personally, in the type of look at the producer’s role First, you need to concen to make sure the songs are sure the songs are ready to ments are solid – in the w everything comes down t song itself is not sensation lem right from the beginni The second thing is perfo lieve is a rather undervalu a record these days. There are great perform made, which is nice to see But obviously in a time wh incredible tricks and manip nology the performance important because it is qu ture performances. Howe do are fundamentally built I try and help create an atm ful, powerful and even ve es can take place. Obviou important in setting the vib eters of the type of perform I generally like to set up is playing live, preferably with sight lines between ea ly going to give you a cert PEOPLE & BUSINESS // CHRIS ECKMAN The definition has really been stretched so it is of little surprise that there is a lot of confusion of what a producer is. Drop the three words “music industry producer” into conversation and you risk getting a blank stare. So to clarify, how would you describe the role of a music producer? I think that one of the main reasons that people have a hard time understanding the definition of a pro- ducer is because those of us in the industry itself also grapple with this term. At this point in time the role really stretches across a lot of different activities. There are still records being made very much like they were in the seventies or sixties – bands in the room performing alongside an engineer. Yet you have this other guy or gal who sits in the room watching over the entire proceedings and we call this person the producer. Of course in hip hop and electronic music, a lot of times there are no lines drawn between the produc- er and the artist as often they are the same person as people now have direct access to recording set- ups in their personal studios. The definition has really been stretched so it is of little surprise that there is a lot of confusion of what a producer is. Producing a success story

SAE Magazine 13-3

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