Guest Book

Picking up on the producer thread, a producer is much more a part of the creative process. Questions for producers are things like, 'is that the take", Can he/she do it better?" "What if we?". Engineeers are much more along the lines of "Damn, that things got a buzz in it, and I don't think I can get it out." "If he wasn't playing so loud, we might could get the sound he's looking for." "What kind of drum sound are you looking for on this?" Producers also have responsibilities for contacting/hiring session players, getting performance clearances from record labels, publishing companies etc. They are the go between with the record company A/R people, if they aren't already part of that team. A good producer can protect the band from interference so that the creative process can flow. A great producer-i.e. Tom Dowd, creates an environment where a band feels it is unbeatable. He also has to have a world class BS detector to balance egos, tell folks this new song they think is wonderful is crap etc. Perhaps the greatest value the producer has is that he/she is trusted. Again the best example of that is Dowd and Jon Landau with Springsteen.