Industry Experience Assists Good Production Skills
The difference between a good producer, and a good sound engineer as a general rule is this:
- A good sound engineer understands how sound works, and can utilize the technology and tools to effectively reproduce an existing work, live or recorded.
- A good producer will have developed those same engineering skills, plus a solid understanding of arranging, feel, and how music and sounds are put together, and how to get the best performance from an artist during recording.
- Further, a good producer would have also developed the insight to use those skills to take an artist/product into a musical direction, and sound environment that most effectively brings forward the artist's/product's best points for a given market.
- This requires an exceptional working knowledge of the music industry, and how 'packages' are put together.
Any successful industry professional when asked to speak honestly will tell you - "It's about the package".
This is how it works: A commercial production is a 'marriage' of many elements, all complimenting each other. This should create a very "ready-to-eat" buying situation for the public in general. The public want to know what they are buying, in as many ways as possible, and it should be as totally easy for them to get what they want.
In this competitive age, tweaking the smallest of nuances can help dissolve barriers between your product and the buying public.
Some of the nuances of that 'marriage' are:
- Choice of sounds - understanding thier current and historic/retro market value.
- Style of arrangement
- Familiarity content and stylistic nuances that are friendly to particular markets
- Iinclusion of new sounds, arrangements and combinations
- Vocal quality or suitability to the target audience
- Believability of the subject matter from the recorded performance
- The function the product needs to serve (i.e. dance, easy listening)
- Musical satisfaction criteria (eg. instrumental performance in a particular style)
Just to name a few.
All these elements fit together like a jigsaw puzzle, and this is where industry experience really starts to make a difference. The subtleties of each tweak on each sound could push a product away from one audience, and towards another. Naturally, it would be much better for the artist if the audience they are getting closer to with their sound is the same audience that will buy their entire package!
If you are doing a demo that you would rather leave generic and un stylistic, because at this time you have not worked out exactly who your target audience is, or even what your musical direction is, you will most likely be better off working with a good sound engineer in the studio - someone who can accurately reproduce what you do.
If however, you are an aspiring artist that has their market worked out, or is in the process of working it out, then choosing a producer is a very important issue. The same applies to businesses that need musical product such as film, radio, and advertising companies, where you need music specifically tailored to suit your image and requirements.
More on choosing a producer soon..
Richie Robinson
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YOUR INTEGRITY - A VALUABLE ASSET
As you work to build your product, your profile, and your business, you'll want to build your integrity with it. There are so many "backyarders" about with PCs, pirated programs, and 'ripped' sounds. It would be easy to get caught up with people that will give you an inferior product - and do it using stolen goods!
There is nothing wrong with asking if software and sound sources are legal. Here at Audio Lab we have all the legitimate receipts and registrations to show our software and sound sources are legal and licensed.
You, as the end user of our productions, sound sources, and affiliated musicians, will never have to worry about inheriting the copyright, licensing, or legal issues you may need to deal with as a result of using ripped or stolen sounds, or an inferior production studio.
Further, when sounds are 'ripped' on typical pirating equipment, it deteriorates the quality of the sound. So much so, that when those sounds are played back on good hi-fi equipment, in venues, or in movie cinemas, the fullness of sound (frequency response for you tech heads) will actually have been lost.
No playback will ever be as clear and satisfying as professionally recorded sounds, reproduced on professional equipment that preserves their audio quality.
We guarantee that all work done on our premises, or by our staff under our logo, is created, rendered, and delivered using legitimate and registered software and sound sources. All good businesses should be able to do this for you.
As a result, you can rest assured that audiolab-online will support not only your artistic, but your business integrity as well.
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