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It’s always best to do critical listening in an environment you know well - your room, your speakers or headphones. This may depend on their go-to mixer’s price vis-a-vis your budget. If they weren’t the mix engineer on the song you heard, you want to find out who was the mixer on these songs, and whether they would be working on your song as well. So pay extra attention to the quality of the mix. If that’s the case, you can expect to get broadly similar results with your mix, depending on the quality of input material, and assuming it’s a similar genre. They might be the mixing engineer themselves.
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Since mixing is an important part of getting professional sound, the ‘sound’ quality is in part due to the mixing engineer’s skill. Find out if they mixed the songs they are playing you. But if the arrangement, mix, vocal and instrumental performance are on par with what you want to achieve, that’s a good sign. Here are a few things you should listen for: Professional Soundĭo the songs sound like a finished product to you? Depending on the budget, experience and source material (talent) they were working with, it may be unrealistic to expect every song will sound like a top-10 radio single. Considering a producer's creative involvement in the process, samples should be their pride and joy. The first thing you should do is listen to audio samples and trust your ears. Find out what your producer brings to the table by asking them. They don’t have to be mixers, but it’s good to know what strengths they bring to the table.Įvery producer is different. Some producers are hands on mixers, while others aren’t mixers at all but might sit next to mixers and direct them. Mixing is a really important part of the production process.
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In some cases if they mix this might be part of the package you get working with them, and sometimes their mixing chops are part of what make up the ‘sound’ they are known for. If you listen to these records you’ll hear the stylistic difference that is due in part to the difference in process.īoth Traditional Producers and Beatmakers might or might not also be Mixing Engineers. When working with Beatmakers you’d typically either choose from an existing beat they already have (and lease it for use or buy it for exclusive use), and then write a vocal melody and lyrics over it (this is the more common use case), or you would pay the Beatmaker to create a custom beat based on your specifications or around a melody you already wrote.Īs an example, Sia worked with a traditional Producer on her early records, which included live instrumentation and more organic production and songwriting processes, whereas she discussed in interviews how for her latest pop-oriented singles she wrote melodies over existing beats that Beatmakers sent her. This started in the world of Hip Hop but since Pop music has become more beat oriented, some pop songs are written as ‘toplines’ (vocal melodies) over existing beats by Beatmakers with a particular sound. They are known for exactly that - making beats. Beat Makersīeatmaker Producers are pretty common in the Hip Hop and Urban Pop world. In some cases they also do ‘vocal coaching’ to the artist, helping identify the best key for the vocalist and guide the artist through the vocal takes, lending their experience to when you have it nailed, when to try again and how, what types of harmonies or doubles to do etc. I’m not giving this last example to poke fun – you can’t imagine how important it is to have someone on the project who possesses these skills.
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In some cases they know how to oversee and coordinate a project and locate the right talent at the best price and just ‘make it happen’, not unlike a musical Project Manager or Wedding Planner. They are instrumentalists or multi instrumentalists that may end up being your ‘band’ on the recording. These folks are typically good at arrangements - deciding which instrument will play on which song and what part each instrument will play. This category of producers are fantastic if you’re a songwriter and when working remotely. Traditional producers can take your song or song idea and turn it into a great sounding track that you can record your vocals to. No one is better than the other, they are just different, so it’s important to find out what kind of producer you’re talking to. There are different types of producers who all call themselves producers, and this can get confusing. In this guide I'll offer a 4-point checklist for identifying the right producer for you. Magic can come of the right producer-artist relationship and working with the right producer can make a song bloom. Someone you'll have to trust with your "babies". You're not hiring a plumber you're trying to find your partner in art.
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Now you're starting your search for candidates.
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The Insider's Guide to Hiring a Music Producerįor so many good reasons, you've decided to hire a music producer.
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