What is the difference between Engineering,producing and mixing?

Here we go with a dictionary lesson:

Pre-production phase: the part of the production process where initial decisions are made, music is written, arranged and orchestrated ready for recording.

Production phase: the part of the production process where recording takes place.

Post-production phase: the part of the production process where mixing and mastering takes place.

Engineer: short for sound engineer, someone who works with sound, usually with electronic processing either in hardware or software. Responsible for capturing sounds using microphones that are placed to gain maximum signal of the desired type.

Producer: someone who is responsible for achieving the artistic vision of a project within the set budget. In a recording company, the bottom line is that it comes in on or under budget. In the self-owned studio you will still work to a budget, but the time limits are not as big a constraint and money can be spent at your leisure as you have it available.

Mixing: short for Mix engineer. This is also someone who works with sound but at a post-recording stage of a project. They will use electronic processing in hardware or software to bring the project together into a single sonic vision.

Mastering: final stage in a project prior to CD production/on-line distribution. Brings the entire project into the same sonic environemtn and ensures that key ideas like loudness and eq are optimised for distribution/playback.

Composer: the person who actually writes the music.

Arranger: the person who takes the music and creates a structure and orchestral vision for it.

Orchestrator: the person who writes the individual parts for each instrument to match the arrangers vision.

Performer: a musician who plays one or more instruments. Usually based on the arrangers and orchestrator's vision but sometimes they are given the broad picture and allowed to improvise the part they play

The Composer, Arranger, Orchestrator and Performer may be the one person or can be several people.

The Producer can do every job described above, but a good producer will source the best people for each job, hence the responsibility for overall management of the project including meeting project deadlines within budget.
 
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Producah - all of the above

All joking aside, just want to add that in many studios, sound/audio engineer and mixing engineer is one guy wearing two hats.
 
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