George Martin was frequently described as “The fifth Beatle” and its generally accepted that the band would never have achieved its fame without his input. The “producer” literally “produces” the music from the raw ingredients created by the musicians and any final album is shaped by the musical production.
Over the years, I’ve come to appreciate that the producer’s role in this creative process is as important as the actual artist and/or band’s contribution. A bad musical production can kill any listening enjoyment and a great production can really create a truly joyous musical experience. Of course everyone will have an idea of what sounds great, and there’s no right or wrong in this. That said I do like Brian Eno’s following comment –
“If you had a sign above every studio door saying, ‘This Studio is a Musical Instrument,’ it would make such a different approach to recording.”
Brian Eno
Recording vocals
I’m lucky to be working with a world class producer who has decades of experience in producing artists and its been a massive education in learning about the recording, mixing and mastering process. He always comments about the importance of having the vocalist up front in mixes. Yes, it can be argued that its fashionable to have vocals buried in a mix, but to my ears its a massive mistake. Why bother to write a set of lyrics and then have them lost in what is often a muddy mix where you can’t hear what the singer is singing about?
Recently I played a CD that had the main vocal buried way down in the mix so I actually thought it was a fault with my system until I played in in the car and had the same problematic experience. On looking at the wave forms in a studio it then became clear that the whole mix had all the mid frequencies compressed, so at times it was almost impossible to hear the actual singing, which was a real shame. Of course this is a personal view and many artist fans will applaud all efforts without any objective criticism! This can happen when some less experienced producers don’t have the production experience and then make the mistake of adding a huge amount of compression to mixes, so the whole listening experience is “really flat’ with no audio dynamics. Its a personal pet hate of mine, but of course others may insist “its how I want my sound to be heard” and so we can agree to disagree!
Brittany Howard gets squashed
One great example of vocals lost in a mix is with Brittany Howard who I saw on Jools Holland. I was blown away by her live performance, but then massively disappointed by the debut album she released. Once again the producer got a bit carried away with his enthusiasm for processing.
The production was so bad I actually checked to see if there was a problem with my audio system.
This reviewer here flags “The incredible amout of compression” which for me made the whole album totally unlistenable so I only played it once. Again this is purely my opinion and shye must have been happy to sign off on the project, but I thought it was a missed opportunity.
Daniel Lanois – a master of the use of reverb done tastefully
One of my most loved music producers in Daniel Lanois. Daniel has a very specific sound in his production in terms of reverb. Personally I love his work with Bob Dylan, especially on “Oh Mercy” where he creates a massive sound for Bob Dylan. Lanois also worked with U2 and in my view did a great job on some of their classic albums, before they fell from grace in adding one of their albums to all IPhones, which was a sure way to alienate a lot of people. The track below is a great example of a really interesting mix with Lanois’s signature reverb.
Different playback mediums and different listening experiences
In the movie “Once” the producer of the main character played by Glen Hansard tells the band after the studio session that they now need to listen back in a car. The reason for this is that despite how great a mix may sound in the production editing suite, its always a smart move to test any mixes on a whole range of playback devices including car stereos, phones and mp3 players. All these mediums will deliver hugely different listening experiences.
Back in 1980s I bought what I would describe as my first hi fi gear, when a local musician wanted to sell his Meridian M2 active speakers. The CD format was pretty new at this time and he lent me the speakers over a weekend to see what I thought of them. I remember playing Kate Bush’s “Hounds of Love” and thinking “Wow, this sounds very different to my previous listening experiences” I was hearing a hugely expanded sonic range that was not reproduced by my usual playback system. I often liken this moment to eating in a really excellent restaurant to realise just how good food can taste. Since then I’ve been an unashamed fan of hi fi to get the best possible sonic experience, in that what I am hearing is as close as possible to hearing the artists playing in the same room.
Over the years there have been many different music formats and each one will make for a different listening experience. I have some of my favorite albums on a variety of different music formats including vinyl, CD, DVA, SACD and high resolution audio, including Flac and DSD files. I remember being in Tokyo many years ago and came across a display for a new Walkman by Sony, showcasing what they called “HD audio” I was used to I Pods and portable music devices that ripped CD files, but had a listen to the demo tracks on display. I was was absolutely amazed at the sound quality of some tracks that I new very well. Ultimately of course everyone will have a different take on what they love, BUT there’s never been a better time to record music and as with many things in life the devil is in the details!
Personal favorite albums that (to my ears) sound great
Here are some of the albums I continue to listen to and love over the years, all of which have (to my ears) great production that makes for a really inspiring listening experience. These days its often fashionable to call albums “classic” “masterpieces” and “genius”, but I prefer to reserve such terms for what I consider to be the best of the best, and that’s a much smaller grouping. Many of these below are from a few decades ago as well.
Aja – Steely Dan
Solid Air – John Martyn
Oh Mercy – Bob Dylan
Miss America – Mary Margaret O’Hara
Remain in Light by The Talking Heads
Raising Sand – Robert Plant & Alison Krauss
A Kind of Blue – Miles Davis
Hejira – Joni Mitchell
Black Market – Weather Report