I’m amazed that from all the producers Steve mentioned, there were no females! I actually did some research on female producers and found that only one female had ever won a Grammy Award for sound engineering! Her name is Trina Shoemaker who used to be an apprentice of Daniel Lanois, one of the producers Steve presented on Thursday. (Ulaby 2003) I wonder why there aren’t many female producers that are as well known as the numerous amounts of male producers such as George Martin or Rick Rubin. Leslie Ann Jones, who produces jazz and classical music, once had hopes of becoming a producer in the rock ‘n’ roll genre. She felt there was “a lot of typecasting in our industry” (Ulaby 2003).
I’m glad Steve discussed what producers actually do as I wasn’t very sure, but he made some good points such as having excellent communication skills (Fieldhouse 2007). I think it is an essential part of everyday life that people in all careers should possess. Without communication skills you can’t expect a perfect product.
Through the various examples Steve showed us, I was able to understand what he meant by a producer’s distinctiveness. For example, Butch Vig’s soft beginning which then lead on to an unexpected volume increase. I can see I’ve a lot to learn from this type of music industry such as the old tricks of the trade like Butch Vig’s soft beginning or another favourite of his which was to include obscure sounds in the track to confuse people so they would turn up the volume and get shocked by the sudden loudness (Fieldhouse 2007)!
It seems so easy when we’re in class to identify such “techniques”, if that’s what you would call them, however when I’m at home listening to music it’s not so easy for some reason. Maybe it’s because in class we can actually visualise the music on ProTools so we can see for ourselves the different trademarks that distinguish the individual producer.
Reference List
Fieldhouse, Steve. 2007. “Introduction to Producers.” Lecture presented at University of Adelaide, 15 March .
Ulaby, Neda. 2003. “Women Music Producers.” National Public Radio. http://www.npr.org/programs/atc/features/2003/apr/producers/index.html 16/3 (16 March 2007).
6 comments:
You bring up a good point about female producers... Thats why we need to take over once we finish, me, yourself, Lisa, Belinda... Haha... Good to see that you're explroing the relevance of the class and how it will help you in possible future careers.
Excellent! Good to see some outside the square thinking.
Another good female record producer is Sylvia Massy, despite the fact she hasn't won any Grammy awards, she does have some big names behind her so check her out also.
I know how you feel about not hearing elements that aren't pointed out by Steve. It's like "listen, you hear that?", and you say "sure I hear that." But if it isn't pointed out in class, then in terms of standard listening you wont hear it. I think this may have something to do with the fact that our ears as producers aren't fully developed yet so we don't recognise the subtle little things.
And finally you show some good understanding so far, and I totally agree with you on your points about communication skills.
Well done.
Hey, its awesome you did research in looking for woman producers, good thinking, since it is a male orientated area.
I didn't really know much about music producers either but doing these journals have helped! You have covered the main rolls in a producer and their contribution in the music industry.
well done
Excuse my ignorance- what is MTF?
Hi Ben! Sorry, I'm a bit new to this whole Blogging thing so I sometimes assume that the only people who read it are the people in my class! Anyway, MTF stands for Music Technology Forum, it's a class that I'm currently doing in my Diploma of Sound ENgineering course. Hope that helps!
OHHH! I'm doing the degree, so we have our own forum. I suppose MTF sounds a little hipper, or something.
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