Roles and Responsibilities
a producer has many roles and responsibilities, none are limited and none are limiting. Some producers coach the artist whereas others compose for the artist. Many suggest alterations and changes on a track an artist has made and some also handle all the recording sessions.
My role is to produce the EP so I will be composing some of the drum beats/piano melodies etc… My main role will be to record my two other ‘band’ mates Veronica and Bart. Veronica is our vocalist/composer and Bart is our guitar player /promoter. I will be held responsible for the recording sessions and for the mixing of the tracks.
Producers do multiple things and this makes putting a definition on the word “producer” very hard. Some producers do some things and some producers do other things. For example, Rick Rubin. Rick doesn’t claim to have any technical expertise whatsoever. Instead he likes to see himself as a mentor, moulding his visions to the artists’ visions and focusing all of his intents on the artist and their visions and ideas.
Probably the most stereotypical idea of a producer is the “engineer”. This type of producer is the one that sits at the mixing desk obsessing over reverb and compression, working into the early hours of the morning in the studio making sure the levels of the track are on point.
Recording Techniques
Whilst recording our tracks I found that self reflective research helped me out more than researching other people’s recording techniques and advice. Trial and error might be a better way of putting it. I found that by trying different things out such as even changing the positioning of microphone gave me different results and sounds. Recording the vocals was a different task to recording the guitar. The position of the mic, the type of mic, it was all different. Plus, due to the dynamics of the guitars sound been different to the vocals sound. That was something taken into account too.
Recording Guitars
The distance between the stereo mics and the guitar depends on the room, the instrument, the part. Usually they are 18″–24″ away, unless it’s a super-gentle part where you might have to bring them in closer. The close mic is probably only 2″–4″ away from the strings — really close, unless it’s a big, strumming part of your track.
When it came to recording guitar i tried using the DI. it picked up the sound very well but the overall sound of the guitar was too tinny. eventually i just used the condenser mic that i had previously used to record the vocals. The sound that came out on the software was a lot nicer than the sound that the DI gave us. I didn’t end up having to record guitar amps which wasn’t really a problem.
Production Techniques
Keep everything simple. Don’t over complicate your mixes with 50 instruments playing at once, or a complex drum beat that distracts from the vocals. Think about what is best for the song. Often, modern records are very simple. Make sure that your production is dynamic and takes the listener on a journey. Your pre-chorus should bring in new instruments to prepare the listener for the chorus and then BANG, the chorus should be full of power and impact. — Aubrey Whitfield, AubreyWhitfield.com
I took this on board when it came to my production on the two tracks. I didn’t want to over complicate the music by giving myself too many tracks to handle at a time.