Week 1 – What is a music producer?

This week in our first lecture on the module “Introduction to Music Production”, We were asked the question of what is a music producer. At first, this seemed like a simple question with a straightforward answer until we started to delve into it as groups and it became increasingly clear that the term “music producer” can describe a wide variety of roles within the industry.

My personal definition of a music producer is someone who bridges the gap between creativity and engineering through the use of technology. This definition already shows how vague the term actually is. If you consider a producer to use technology, the definition also changes as technology advances. A music producer in the modern day, while still technically achieving the same purpose, will operate entirely differently to a music producer in the 60s who instead of using computers and DAWs with the freedom to cut and edit with relative ease will instead be operating on a multi-track tape recorder with a lot less freedom to craft a track in post-production. This differs even more so from producers in the late 1800s who would use wax cylinders to record. This would allow even less flexibility in sound and would again allow less freedom.

With the wider access we have in the modern day to laptops with music production software, It has become easier and more accessible for individuals to record and produce their own ideas. This has led to the rise of ‘bedroom producers’ and has also shifted the definition of music production even more so. A large number of producers now have a much larger input creatively on a track than they did in past years and as such has widened this role even further.

There are a wide range of different music producers in both the way they work and what input they have on the record. From mixing and mastering engineers who have little to no creative input on the track to individuals who record their own music and as such have complete creative control. This begs the question of where I hope to stand on this spectrum. I am hoping that as this course goes on and I learn more about all of these different categories of producers and the intricacies of each role I will decide exactly where I want to position myself but as of now, I am content in knowing that there is a lot that I do not yet know and that there is a lot that I wish to learn. Through these three years of study, I hope to hone my craft and become both more knowledgeable on the industry and production as a whole and also more technically well versed in digital recording.