What did it take to become a producer

N

nathan

Jul 16, 2004
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#1
I don't know the rules and regulations of this thread, so I'm not sure if this is a legit post or not, or who i'm talking to and who will reply. I'm just wondering, though, what it took for you to be a producer. I'm a freshman in College and that's kind of my goal. I know it's tough to get into and extremely competetive...can you offer any advice?
 
#2
I work for a very succesfull producer and unfortunately the answer you're looking for is a short novel so I've put his story into a couple of lines... and I'm not being sarcastic... it would be an extremely long answer any other way.

find an artist... get some engineering skills and find a way to record that artist... make great recordings with that artist... find a way to distribute those recordings thru a label... or start your own... hope for the best...
 
#3
Can't presume to answer for Janek, but if you're interested in production you should record at every chance and listen to as much music as possible with a critical ear. However it's equally important if making pop or dance-oriented music to be able to turn off the critic/clever muso/bass virtuoso tendencies and just approach music as a listener. In pop music simplicity and repetition are key.

Some of the most useful advice I've see Janek give here is to make things happen--produce your own recordings. Due to the home/project recording boom made possible by digital technology, there aren't as many opportunities for freelance engineers/producers/session musicians in commercial studios as there were 20 or 40 years ago. However, now almost anyone with a computer can make decent-sounding recordings at home.

Bill Laswell is probably my favorite bassist/producer, having worked with an insane range of artists including Mick Jagger, Whitney Houston, Bootsy Collins, Bernie Worrell, Buckethead, Herbie Hancock, Matisyahu, Sly & Robbie, and Angelique Kidjo to name just a few. His remixes of Miles Davis, Santana, and Bob Marley are phenomenal.

I find TapeOp (both the printed magazine and the online forums) to be one of the best resources for recording/production advice and inspiration...check it out!
 
#4
great replies from the guys here, loving those answers.

for me this is how it started.

I got sick of playing on poorly produced record dates. I would go into the studio and sit around for hours while some "producer" messed around with a chord sequence and saught the opinion of everyone in the room as they had none of their own. I ended up making some suggestions here and there and artists that I was working for as a sideman remembered this stuff and started calling me instead of the "producer". I did get a good break a few years back when I got a call from Ronny Jordan to produce some cuts on his new record at the time. I wrote, played on, engineered, mixed, and produced these cuts on his album and that led to a number of other things at the time.

But the main thing that continues to get me work is creating my own scene. as a sideman bass player the scene is pretty much over. there's no breaking into the scene anymore. The few guys like Nathan East, Will Lee, Pino Palladino etc... have it sown up, and they are going anywhere. so I become more known as a producer from different things I'm doing, and people tend to call me for that more and more. then of course, I get to play bass on the albums which is cool.

My advice is this:

Go out and buy the following gear:

Macbook Pro
Logic Pro
Pro Tools
good sound card
reasonable mic
avalon (or something similar) pre amp
small mixer
good pair of studio monitors

and learn how to use it all the best you can. Write tracks, program beats, write songs, collaborate with anyone you can. Set up a publishing company (BMI, ASCAP, CSAC etc...) to register all your work with. and just push your stuff out there. Myspace is great for that. write songs, make beats and tracks and post them on myspace for people to hear. target the people you're adding to your page in a way that you might hit some people that are into your style of writing and producing. then be patient, and persistent and it'll happen.

Easy,

Janek
 
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