How common are "producers" in metal

[CatharsisStudios]

i am gonna toot my own horn, but every band i've recorded loves all of my producing and every band i record always says they want me to really help them write/producer :3



but no producing in metal is soo fricken important, maybe even more then tracking

 

[OrdinanceGuitar]

^ Total badass.

 

[plague_rider]

Couple of bands i've worked with I've thrown some ideas at them, suggestions and that... they were happy...

theres one band I know locally, they're really work on their material and pre-produce it themselves, not in an arsy sense where they won't accept any other ideas, but they think of everything when writing... I put maybe a couple of ideas in, but that was after hearing the songs over and over for maybe 3 weeks...

 

[Trevoire520]

I normally find bands look to me for the odd bit of input here and there. Not totally rewriting songs or anything, just little things like harmonies, solo tweaks, vocal doubling ideas and stuff. 99% of the songs are done before they hit the studio though so most of the work is done.

I tend to know the majority of the guys I record from playing gigs with them, so that helps in that we have mutual respect as musicians and songwriteers. Get's a good vibe going.

 

[RedDog]

I love how I do all the work in my main band. Guitars, bass, drums even. I get to be my own worst critic.

The voices in my head tell me to play better.

Then there's this metal band (And they are metal, but just think they're hardcore) that I play bass for that has me record their stuff, program EZDrummer, and re-arrange their stuff to make them sound somewhat legit.

They call me their producer, because I am never satisfied with a take unless I have had no less than three orgasms from it.
(It's kinda hard to while recording direct-in from an Ibanez MIMXuke:)

In truth, I don't consider myself a producer. I just know what sounds good and I won't settle for anything less.

 

[Star Ark]

The way illegal downloading in killing all the profit in the music biz I think you will see lots of famous guys branching out into production. I belive that is how my band scored Jeff Waters and how another Aussie band I know scored Jeff Martin. If you go to those myspace pages you see big ads about them offering production services. I kind of like being at the bottom of the chain. If things keep going this way, maybe I can get Danny Carey to produce my next album

 

[dcb]

production in my eyes is the key to a great sound.
more or less, the arrangement dictates how everything will sound in the end.

play master of puppets with a pod xt set to the shittiest setting and people will go : "yeah man".

play your own "shitty" riff with bad technique with that sound and you will go : "man, this sounds shit..."

your part as a producer is to make your shitty song memorable and on spot by ripping the material apart,
and suggest changes that will make your riff sound great EVEN thorugh the worst setup.

thats why shitty sounding demos are cool. if the song is cool - your arrangement will "make" the sound.

its all inside the music, i guess a lot of bands dont recognize that fact and blame engineers.

of course, a bad engineer can ruin everything. but really in the end, i wished bands would pay more
for preproduction and the producer than going to a 500$/day studio.

 

[Skyweaver]

my first recording was in 1986 in Australia, from my experience producers are fuckn RARE...good producers are even more difficult to find...most commonly I find "engineers" calling themselves producers and whats more disappointing is that they only specialized in a particular type of instrument or they favor that instrument because of their background.

Example the guitarist who becomes a "producer"...he gets a good guitar tone - (great your still an engineer btw), but lacks in the other instruments and couldn't give a flying tit-fuck about the importance of the bass etc (yes venting).

Performance....hitting record and saying "again" does not constitute a producer, reading newspaper, texting, taking phone calls while someone is tracking is not a producer. With the performance I expect the producer to be able to articulate what is wrong and how to improve it, "again" or "play less gay" or "thats fucked" are not supportive of any player, I expect "try this", "you've got a better take in you", "hey come back tomorrow and practice X, Y, Z" or worst case "let rebook you after you do X, Y, Z"

The Song....Metal heads are stubborn cunts, we know everything and have written a couple of books on it , it's takes a lot of energy and experience on the producers behalf to work with a band. When recording its all about the "song", Structures (Verse, Bridge, Outro), Dynamics (crescendo, Fortissimo, Forte), Lyrics - A real producer will work on the lyrics with the vocalist, the pronunciation and delivery, the number of words shoved into a verse etc, from my experience only a very few producers will get involved at the "song" level, most commonly they will just do the thing they do best (engineer) and hit record.....

 

[TheDude]

When I produce a band/album, I eat, shit and live with the demos, until I know the songs like I'd written them myself, sort of the last member of the band. Then I do the same things I do with my own songs (Clawfinger) and that is to enhance the good parts and sometimes remove the bad parts. Everything it takes to make the song better. Together with the band or by myself. If the band disagrees with what I hear, I do a "directors cut" and let them decide after listening to both. So far all DC's have been final versions.

It's a lot of throwing ideas back and forward to get a result that's satisfactory to the band, label, and myself. Whatever it takes.

If a band has a 100% clear vision and I agree, then it's more an engineering/therapist type of role. Make the recording go smooth, settle arguments between members and so on. Whatever role I have, I make sure that the experience as a whole is a good experience. Good for business.

 

[guitarguru777]

I spent 2 hours explaining the progression of metal to death metal vocals with the last band I worked with. The vocalist was doing the whole white chapel clone thing and I knew the kid had an amazing voice we just had to find it and make it his own.

I played him everything from Testament to Posessed, Obituary and Deicide and said listen to how different and unique each vocalist is. He had no idea that you could really have your own voice and sound. After that he went home thought about it and now hes really kicking ass vocally and doing his own thing.

It was a very proud moment for me and the band loves the new direction he is taking vocally. I really think his performance was AMAZING on the entire thing. We just had to coax his own voice out of him.