What a Record Producer Does

by Mike McInnis

I've seen it asked and discussed a dozen times on internet forums: what exactly does a record producer do? He must do something; look at the way Pink Floyd gradually slid Piper at the Gates of Dawn Norman Smith from producer to executive producer and then out of the picture entirely, and the contention over Bob Ezrin's role as a latter-day producer. It must be more than just a credit on the record sleeve. Roger Waters, David Gilmour, and Richard Wright have produced Syd's solo work. Gilmour and Nick Mason have produced records for a variety of artists. And it is common to hear of musicians getting excited about working with this producer or that producer.

So what do producers do?

On a certain level, the producer is responsible for the overall finished product. (Get it? Product--producer?) Back in the earliest days of the recording industry, when everything had to be done in single takes, with artists crowded around a sparse number of microphones, it was the record label or a private investor who initiated the record-making process. The actual musicians involved were often left out of the decision-making process entirely. They were hired to do what the producer of the recording wanted them to--he decided what songs were to be recorded, which take would be used, and so on.

This changed as the artists themselves became popular enough to start calling their own shots now and then. Jazz musicians like Louis Armstrong and Miles Davis started to get more involved in the process, dictating to a certain extent who played on the records, what the tracks would be, and so on. But even then they relied heavily on a producer, often someone in the employ of the record company, to coordinate things and make it happen. The best of these producers--giants such as Norman Granz, Bob Thiele, and Teddy Reig--were respected by both jazz musicians and fans, and highly sought after. They helped shape the recording industry and the history of popular music.

As rock and roll developed out of the existing pop music scene, many of the established record-making methods were used. Record producers hired artists to record the songs they wanted recorded, and in turn hired songwriters to write songs for their artists to record. The producer was footing the bill and taking all the financial risk, and thus was in a position to call the shots. (The fact that the musicians were often bound to contracts that gave them little say in what they recorded, and usually gave them no lasting rights to the recordings or the songs, didn't hurt the producers or the record labels, either.)

With time, though, the artists became too popular to be dominated by anyone's creative vision but their own. Bands like the Beatles wanted to prove that they were capable of writing their own songs and controlling how the finished recording sounded and so forth, setting the stage for bands such as Pink Floyd, who wrote essentially all of their own material and who took control of every aspect of their finished product, from the sound of the record to the album cover design.

In this day and age, it is somewhat difficult to conceive of someone other than the artist being responsible for such decisions. But consider acts like the Backstreet Boys or Christina Aguilera or your average illiterate rap-star-of-the-moment: without being exceedingly derogatory, I think it is fair to say that they probably know little about arranging music or getting the best sounding recording out of a raw song. Present these people with a set of lyrics and a melody and even the most sophisticated recording equipment, and I doubt any of them could come close to creating a number one record.

That's not to belittle their creative abilities. (I leave that to your ample imagination.) It's just that the crafting of a 'finished' rock song out of a simple set of lyrics and a chord progression is a fairly complex task. Face it--there's a lot more that goes into all but the simplest of recordings (for example, a singer with a lone guitar). Say you want a bass and piano and drum to backup that basic guitar and voice. Perhaps you want to add an orchestral score to a section, or maybe get really ambitious and use some sound effects. Or maybe you want an instrumental chorus to introduce the song, followed by a quiet, pared down first verse, before the full band comes in on the second verse. Someone has to make those decisions, and that job falls to the producer.

Sure, these kinds of decisions are often made by the songwriter and band, who may have a specific idea about how they want the song produced when they write and rehearse it. But even seasoned writers and performers often come to the table with songs in very rough form--a simple strummed guitar recorded on a home studio.

Take, for example, the tales told of Waters' initial Wall demos presented to the band in 1978. He had written lyrics and music, and taped virtually all of it at home. He turned this tape over to the rest of the band, and they started fleshing it out, expanding sections, rewriting bits, rearranging, rehearsing. At some point there were dramatically different opinions on which direction the record should take, with Waters and Gilmour strongly disagreeing on several points.

(This was nothing new. Earlier records, such as The Dark Side of teh Moon were 'produced by Pink Floyd' if you believe what the record sleeve said. But as Gilmour once confessed, "In theory we were all producing, but in practice it meant that Roger and I would argue considerably about how it should sound.")

What did they do? Scrap the project entirely? No; they hired producer Bob Ezrin to help them make some decisions. Ezrin's role in creating The Wall is a top example of the influence a producer has on the overall recording process. Waters and Gilmour had done tremendous work to this point, but in hiring Ezrin they agreed to defer to his final decision on which versions would be used.

Producer Bob Ezrin

Not only did he help polish and focus the narrative, but he helped bring new ideas to the process of creating the album. He was the one on whose shoulders fell the unenviable task of telling Waters when his writing wasn't up to par. The discofied sound of "Another Brick in the Wall, Part 2" is largely Ezrin's doing (in an attempt to help generate a hit single from the record), as is chorus of schoolchildren that is the song's trademark. When Waters wanted an orchestral feel to "Comfortably Numb" and Gilmour favored a heavier, guitar-driven sound, it was Ezrin who made the final decision. And it was Ezrin who (with Michael Kamen) developed the orchestral score for "The Trial"; so important was his contribution to the finished song that the stingy Waters even shared the writing credit!

Ezrin's input as a producer was so valued that both Waters and Gilmour sought his services in producing their post-split records (though Ezrin chose to only work with Gilmour). Apparently, though, Waters learned that having a producer to collaborate with is a valuable thing, as he shares the producing responsibilities on every record he has made since The Wall.

In a way, the producer is in charge of managing every aspect of the recording session, from the actual content of the recording, to assembling any additional musicians needed, to making sure the engineers are capturing the performances the way he and the band want them captured, to overseeing the final mixdown.

When the Floyds got started they felt privileged to have a successful professional producer, Norman Smith, guiding them through the process, and helping them craft a hit single or too. For all that is made of Syd Barrett's songwriting and inventive guitar antics, Smith deserves a lot of the credit for finding a way to translate the Floyd's onstage chaos into the recorded medium. But by the time they were making A Saucerful of Secrets, the Floyds themselves started experimenting with producing their own recordings, which led to that album's title track. Smith hated it, but the Floyds seemed to enjoy the added freedom to experiment.

Even the most basic elements of running a studio session--such as contracting with a recording studio and hiring a caterer and keeping the recording sessions on schedule--fall under the producers duties, although they are usually farmed out to hired hands. With the Floyds producing their own albums from 1970 through 1979, it is largely accepted that manager Steve O'Rourke took over making most of the logistical arrangements (freeing the band to handle the artistic end of things. And it seems that the Floyds have always had a knack for hiring exceptionally competent technical help (engineers such as Alan Parsons and James Guthrie) to help them translate their artistic vision to the recorded medium.

It is easy to view the record producer as just another industry Suit, riding a successful band's gravy train. (And in some cases, you might be right.) But more often than not, musicians rely on their producers to make them sound like the geniuses their fans expect them to be.

Mike McInnis is a staff writer for Spare Bricks.