News

Producers Discuss Their Changing Craft

New York City (October 14, 2003)--A&M Records president and Grammy-winning producer Ron Fair played moderator to a panel discussion always well-attended at the AES Convention. The Platinum Producers Panel, held on Saturday (October 11), brought four sought-after record producers to the stage to discuss the revolutions going on in the music industry--in both the way records are made and acquired.

On this year's panel were producer/label executive Tony Brown, producer/mix engineer Jack Joseph Puig, recording artist/DJ/remixer Mark Ronson, and producer/writer Cory Rooney. In addition to discussing their own philosophies of record production, the producers spoke about changes in technology, and the future direction and impact of digital production. Nashville-based producer Brown offered stories of George Strait, noting that the artist's use of Nuendo captured one of his best vocal performances.

"He'd only come into the studio for four days, so we'd have to get the best performance or else it was too late," described Brown. "But, on the last record, my engineer Chuck Ainlay sent a Steinberg Nuendo system to his ranch, and he did more vocals in the privacy of his own house. Thanks to Nuendo and George Strait, I've gotten performances that I wouldn't otherwise have gotten."

And, Puig assured that the psychology of making records is more important than it's ever been because of digital recording. "We've lost and gained things. When recording to tape machines, there is that nervous energy knowing you have to hit the ball out of the park, you just have to do it," explains Puig. "But, now, you have more leeway, and the positive aspect of that is you're free-forming, and you're able to capture really cool stuff that you wouldn't have caught before."

Ronson spoke from the perspective of an artist/DJ, one who as a producer tends to blend different sounds, and can bring an artist in different musical directions. And, Rooney addressed the issue of piracy from the perspective of the producer. "I don't know any solution other than to make music that people want to buy," asserts Rooney. "But, I do think that if record company executives would go back to hiring just one producer to handle an entire album, maybe we could get people excited about the record as a whole, rather than a couple of hit singles."

--Janice Brown