producing/engineering/mixing
emerge
Posts: 22
these terms are really vague to me, i dont really know what they mean or the difference between them. so, what are producing, engineering and mixing?
Post edited by Unknown User on
0
emerge
Posts: 22
Comments
An engineer works all the equipment and makes it record what the band is doing. He gets all the sound onto a medium (tape, hard drive, etc).
A mixer takes all the recorded tracks, fine-tunes them, blends them together, and gets them to a stereo mix.
A mastering engineer takes the final stereo mixes, and treats the overall EQ and also uses compressor/limiters to fine-tune the final level and output.
The producer is in charge of figuring out how the band wants to sound and has ideas of what it takes. For major label acts (where the producer is brought in) they usually do things like setting the bands recording itenerary(sp?) and deciding on what studio to use. They also are very hands on at helping the band shape their sound, and usually pushes them to work harder and dig deeper when recording the songs. I guess they could be thought of as the manager while in the studio.They are also usually present at every stage in the recording process to make sure the finished product sounds like what they want it to.
The engineer is the doctor or the specialist in the studio. He takes what the producer is looking for and makes it happen. The engineer is usually pretty educated in sound physics and is up to date on all the recording technology that is available. He's the guy that acctually runs pro tools or the sound board and gets the music on tape- or on the harddrive as it is usually done now. The engineer does things like decide mike placement and knows how to make a drum stick on a fire exstingisher sound right. Engineer assistants are the ones running around acctually setting the stuff up where the engineer has told them to.
Again, just like mccreadyisgod said, a mixer takes the recorded music and puts it all together. He's the guy that drops guitar #2 behind the bass during the bridge but brings it back up for the chorus and stuff like that. Thats why some recordings sound like the singer is behind the band, where as in others it sounds like he might be the only member. The mixer is responsible for that (although the producer usually is right there telling him or her how they want it to sound). Whenever you play an instrument, you don't always play at the same level, for instance a drummer might play a few notes louder because he's human and people do that. The mixer can fix things like that, so the recording volume is consistant.
Sorry for all the mispellings, I suck at typing, and am in a hurry to get to class. No proofreading on this one.
http://www.myspace.com/christianjame (Music Page)
Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/19598996 (Personal Page)
infinite control over every piece of the recording and it's there in front of us relatively easy to see and tweak. Plugins compressors, limiters, maximisers, vocoders at our fingertips and relatively cheap when you add up what hardware would cost.
If I could make a halfway decent living doing it, I'd produce all the time everyone I could.
I'd have a room full of amps, effects and guitars, pianos, organs, mic's etc. I'd spend weeks getting the tone right, after we worked on the songs.
That for me, would be heaven.
yea because you get paid a crazy amount to hang out with gear.
and i love digital as much as i love analog, mostly because instead of having a giant ass room full of hardware fx i can have everythiing in a computer. and i dont have to worry about patching and running out of compressors and reverbs.