Do you have to Mix/Master your own tracks to be considered a producer?

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I know that in the EDM scene most producers mix and master or at least mix their own tracks as the produce the track....

Ive been learning/recording/producing for a little over a year now and while I've tread on the subject of mixing and mastering music I'm not exactly interested on doing it on my own. I've recently completed recording the parts as well as the arrangement to my first electro house song and am planning to work side by side with accomplished engineers to creatively mix and master my music.... Am I still considered a "Producer"? I mean at the end of the day I still will be working with the engineers and making the final decisions when it comes to the mix and final master as well as having already programmed the synths and the composition of the song....
 
Engineer, Mixer, Producer and mastering agent are separate and distinct jobs (and careers)
You can do one and know almost nothing about the rest, except what 'sounds right' and you can do all, but only be credited with one or do them all and be credited with none.

These roles can take ....a kind of priority over others. It's almost like What's the most important and impacting thing you did?
The term PRODUCER has slightly different connotations or meaning in certain genres.

There's what the term ACTUALLY MEANS and what people mean when they use it and how THEY understand it when they hear it being used.
If you make all the music yourself, record all your synths, mix it all and master it and release your record yourself......what would you be?

A lot of these terms are RESERVED FOR WORKING WITH OTHER PEOPLE.
That idea is extremely important and is lost on most people.

If you do these yourself, you get the title of the end result, NOT the stuff before that.
And so because you recorded yourself, you are not considered an Engineer, you simply engineered your own record.
You are not a record producer, you produced your own record.
If all you do is put out your own records, you can call yourself a label, but you're actually a Vanity Label.

For hip hop and rap, it's just as simple - well, no it's not.....so........
Here we go. If you make beats all day with no destination and someone buys one and uses it, you have made a beat and sold it. That's all.
If someone TASKS you with the construction of a beat FOR AN EXACT PURPOSE, you are starting to PRODUCE FOR SOMEBODY.
If someone asks you to FIND A BEAT for an exact purpose and you are looking for or choosing which beat to buy, you are STARTING TO PRODUCE for somebody.
And I'm saying this ONLY in context of the music. Never-mind everything else involved, because the music (production and handling) is where everyone tries to disagree.

Most rap records are honestly self-produced - BY THE RAPPER.
He handles the studio/engineer and mixer (usually the same person at a basic level).
They pay or negotiate for everything....make changes (as in request they be made) to the beatmaker or the engineer and even chime in on levels and effects with the mixer. They sit in judgement at the end of how the record sounds (critiquing the mastering). All of that responsibility is what allows the rapper to say I produce my own records.
The guy he bought the beat from can be easily given Music Production credit WITHOUT BEING THE RECORD'S PRODUCER.

I know we (beatsmiths) hate that. And so we name numerous examples of guys who sold beats to famous people and are considered producers. The good news or bad news is, that's no exception. For anyone that sold many beats to a particular person or entity or made any kind of impact using their music.....wait for it......

there is usually a 99.99% chance of INVOLVEMENT BEYOND paypal transactions. Once a rapper buys 2 or 3 of your beats, you tend to make contact. You discuss other beats and the beatmaker focuses on his main customer (especially when they pay well or it's someone known). When that happens, the beatmaker is doing what I bold and enlarged from above --> They are making Beats for an exact person or purpose and so are actually starting to produce a record. This almost always leads to enough contact to go beyond what the person who sits home making beats as a hobby and hopeful career is doing in relation to WORKING WITH SOMEONE on a record.

Once you are a producer, you do not go backwards down the line career-wise.
Producers do sit at home making beats. Their end result, as I said above, is their title.
Once I make records, me working on music is me working on my next record.
The term next means there was a previous.

This all goes left when a rapper thinks of RAPPER as the top title and although he does everything, the title producer DEFAULTS down to the guy who made the beat.
Even better if they guy you bought the beat from is known. If I was an unknown rapper and a bought a beat from KNOWN PRODUCER, I mean, he my cousin so I got the beat for FREE, he emailed it to me. I would still call him the producer because TO A RAPPER it has the same impact of working with other people.

It's that moment of asking a rapper WHO DOES YOUR MUSIC and he says "I be buying my beats from kids off the internet" It sounds impersonal and corny.
If he says "I got these six dudes that do all my music" It implies involvement and sounds much better, even though it's exactly the same scenario.

How things sound is why we choose to make things sound a certain way.

In the end, for electronic music, it is almost assumed that you do everything yourself. There is very little live human involvement (in most cases)..
so titles like DJ and Artist are adopted. When you work with other people (commissioned remixes even) you take on the title of Electronic Music Producer.
It's the same idea. If your main thing is to play out and spin a lot of your own records, you might call yourself a DJ. If you perform your records live, you'd be a performance artist [including turntablist]. If you sing or drop the vocals or rap, you'd be an artist. You wouldn't really go backwards and claim a previous TASK as the end result. No one is going to your concert to see you engineer, produce or mix or release records.

And so how much of a producer are you?
How much producing do you do WITH OTHER PEOPLE involved?
Get to 100% and you go back to 'very little' and still keep the title.
 
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Great answer. The term producer has evolved so much over the past decades. I almost feel ridiculous calling myself a producer. Sure, I conceptualize, arrange, mix and master my stuff but still, it seems to easy to throw around the word "Producer" nowadays.
 
no you don't have to mix and master your own songs, but it definitely helps to learn at least how to mix. once you get it almost perfect then it's a good time to send it off to get it mastered. if you are doing EDM, it's important to know how to mix to get the energy you want, especially if you are using sidechain compression and other techniques.
 
As stated already, no you don't but it helps to know a little. Mastering is an art all in itself so just focus on making great music, get it to sound as good as you can, and let someone else master it.
 
I find the higher the ladder you go up in the music game, the less you really do. Seriously, most top producers conceptualize and arrange. That's it. They get someone to mix and master their work. Mind you, they have the funds and resources to do it, but most will publicly admit, they can't do it all.
Also, a producer might have a track mixed and mastered already only to find out that the label that decides to sign the track would like it to sound more "radio-ish" or "club-friendly" In this case, it may have to be re-mixed and re-mastered if it's part of a compilation or specific "sound" associated with said label.
 
Well if you can do all things doesn't that save money and make you more valuable?
 
thejNoise said:
Well if you can do all things doesn't that save money and make you more valuable?
Click to expand...
That's a great observation. I think at that top level, they can focus on strictly creating music and not worry about mix/mastering. They have the funds and contacts. As for being more valuable, the fact that they can mix/master their own material doesn't really make them that much more valuable in my opinion. Best leave this to folks that mix and master tracks all day for a living. These folks get their music sounding "right"
 
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Well if you can do all things doesn't that save money and make you more valuable?

Yeah, I was going to ask More valuable to who?
friends and colleagues that might use your services? Yeah, I guess so.
Somebody building a team from the floor up who might use you as an asset.....

The idea of DIY was supposed to represent not waiting for somebody else and starting your journey on your own.
I know dudes who have recorded many, many good songs and instead of starting their careers and putting them out as real records, they are back to the drawing board time and time again looking for a deal.

Looking for a deal is great (sure, why not) but not at the expense of sitting around, getting older and going nowhere.
No label is going to go "Oh no, you sold X-amount of records on your own, made a little name and built a modest fan following...no way we can sign you. We want somebody whose a complete guess - if they will connect and work out."
 
The top producers generally dont mix there own records.
Mixing is a skill in itself that 95% of producers never master , having a fresh pair of talented ears on your music can work wonders.
 
Being A Producer Is Much More Than Just Making Beats, A Producer Manages The Whole Project: As Far As Beat Making, Recording, Mixing, Mastering, VocalCoaching Etc...
 
Producer overlooks the entire project. So he/she will be present during the entire process making sure everything is up to par, but that doesn't mean they do every single thing. If you ever look behind the scenes of some of the really big companies and artists, you'll see that there is usually an entire team behind a hit song.

I don't know of many top producers that master their own tracks. Dr. Luke, RedOne, 9th Wonder... I've read so many interviews and watched so many videos and none of them master their own tracks. It's an art that takes just as long to get good at as songwriting, dancing, tailoring or anything else. You may learn along the way, and most do, but you'd be better off following the big dogs and just pass the project along to someone who does mastering for a living. Focus on making good music. Now like I've hinted at, there are exceptions, but in all seriousness don't even sweat it. Most people would rather hear a bootleg demo of a hot track by a great artist rather than a super polished, surgically precise song by some run of the mill pop artist like Britney Spears.

You ever heard the saying "jack of all trades, master of none"? Yeah, don't be that guy.

Another way to look at it is like this. The world remembers Steve Jobs as a genius that was responsible for inventing the iPod, iPhone, OS X, etc. But in reality he didn't invent anything. He was the man with the vision (producer), with a plan. He'd write down his ideas, maybe do a few sketches, and then assemble a strong team of people that can help make that vision a reality. He didn't design anything (Jonathan Ives did), he didn't sit down and wire, solder, and put together the first Apple computer, the Macintosh, or the iPod.

He was a man that knew what he wanted to bring into the world and most importantly, he knew where to find the people to make his ideas come to life. So focus on making good music and build a strong team to fill in the gaps.
 
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A lot of big name producers have a team of engineers behind them. But it's certainly impressive if you can do everything yourself. My goal is to achieve as much perfection as possible in all aspects of producing music.
 
All the bigger labels do the fine mastering for their artists but I mean if you're starting out like a small producer or something you should know the basics and make your track sound fine without any other help. That's my opinion..
 
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