Defining the difference between Producer and Audio Engineer

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AddisonXI

AddisonXI

Argumentative...
I read a little on the subject on wikipedia but I always enjoy the input here.

The producer - mixes the music, arrangement(not sure what is meant by this)
would that mean like the order of the song?

The producer also gives input on the sound as in what would help or hurt?


While the audio engineer is more about mic placement, all the knobs and gadgets on whichever interface they use, preamps, and things as such.

Before I even grasp the difference I have to learn what mixing really is...but I'm waiting until I can learn to record at all lol..
 
Most recording nowdays is multitracked. The guitar tracks, drum tracks, vocal tracks, etc. are recorded separatelt. "mixing" is literally mixing all of those tracks together into one stereo track by adjusting the volume and eq of each individual track.

thats the best definition i can give of that :p.

A producer is essentially a coach for the artist, one producers actual roles will differ from another depending on the project. But they basically motivate, and activate the artist by driving them towards a specific vision of the project and aiding in numerous ways, such as what kind of sounds to record, to literally pressing the record button, to usually helping with song arrangement ( and you are right- :) arranging the musical parts into a song) and writing.
I've always seen the definition as varying.

An audio engineer is the person setting up mics, amps, etc. and pressing buttons most time (which many producers do too, but some audio engineers are on their own planet as far as getting great sound though they cant really "produce" a song/artist/album/whatever. they specialize in audio, so producers will normally bring in their personal a.e)
 
Ah, that helps a lot. Hmm, so if I'm going to be multitracking with my little Fast Track Pro... Though I'll still be doing one at a time..is that consider producing?? I mean I don't have a mixer...so I can't really mix. How will the product come together differently. I understand that it won't be professional...but am I looking at just 4 separate tracks that will all be different volumes and no way of fixing them or does Reaper have things that can help take care of that?
 
You don't need a mixer to mix. It can all get a bit misleading. OK, take your DAW, Reaper. You record via your interface into the computer where your DAW is. A computer DAW will have alot more than 4 tracks to record on, but say you wanted to record minimally on 4 tracks {just for this example}. Vocals on track one, guitar on track 2, bass on 3, drums on 4. You have the choice of recording all four at once (presuming your interface allows this. There are single input, dual input, 4s, 8s 10s, 16s....) or each element separately. Once each bit is recorded, you arrange the four elements into an understandable song. Now how you do this is down to you. No two people will mix the same.
Most home recorders are the tape operator, recording engineer, mixing engineer and producer all rolled into one. They're even the studio gopher. And many will end up mastering their projects too. While there is no blurred lines from the engineer's perspective, the producer differs because there are so many ways of 'producing' and sometimes the line between engineering and producing can be blurred from the producer's perspective.
 
If you're doing everything, as most of us do, then you can call yourself whatever you like.

Getting all the nuts and bolts together, as you're doing now, is the audio engineering aspect of it.... don't worry about titles.
 
Music producer is more like a director in a movie set.
Audio engineers are like those camera engineer or art director or special effects engineer......each of them specialize in their own area that work together to make a good movie.....but the director needs to know how to put all of them together....
 
I'd like to be truthful on my resume. *adds Producer/Audio Engineer*. ^_^ jk Thanks for the clarity.
 
To make it simpler,

a producer usually decides what he wants the music to sound like, (actual sound, or arrangement) so needs to be knowledgeable and experienced musically.

an engineer makes it all work, and sound like it's supposed to, so needs to know more about microphones and compressors, how they sound / work etc...
 
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