How many hip hop producers are "sound engineers"?

  • Thread starter Thread starter 36 chamber music
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36 chamber music

36 chamber music

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What up fp...

I've been thinking lately about professional producers and exactly what they do.

I guess my question is, do guys like rza, preem, 9th wonder, dilla, Pete rock, etc, actually record vocals, mix and master their tracks fully, and all that good stuff? I know rza used to record for all the wu tang joints but do most of the "greats" do more then just make the track and mix it? I feel like most producers make their beats/songs and then let sound engineers handle the rest...

Could I get some clerity as to what these producers/beat makers exactly do besides making their songs...
 
Sometimes it depends on if the artist and what they want. I believe, producers like Timbaland, kanye ect, CAN mix if they need to, but they have other sound engineers to handle that so they can work on other things.
 
Yeah that's what I figured. They prolly make the track itself and mix it a lil bit, find the right volume for their different soundS, etc, and then have other people mix it further and eventually master it...
 
As far as tracking vocals goes... because record labels can't make any money, their recording budgets have dropped dramatically. For this reason, a good chunk of records are recorded with the producer acting as tracking engineer working out of their personal studio. The vast majority of them are not nearly as good at tracking as an equivelant level tracking engineer - but it's generally a good place to cut costs.

As for mixing, almost NONE of them mix their own records. Once in a while they will be in on the mix with the mix engineer. But generally speaking the record is turned over to a mix engineer.

At the lower level (dealing with unsigned artists) a lot of producers are forced to mix their own records because either a) there is no money to hire a real mix engineer, or b) the producer is afraid of losing business to the mix engineer. That said, I do get a lot of these unsigned artist records to mix and it's USUALLY the producer telling them to hire me - because they know I'm not going to try and steal their business and because they know that the better their record sounds, the more likely they are to get MORE work.
 
Cool, thanks for the feedback...I appreciate it, it's always been something I've been curious about.
 
Timbaland's engineer used to have an article in each Scratch Magazine issue. I know Bryan Michael Cox has 1. Engineering is a very tedious process, and I think if these big name producers did their own completely, they wouldn't have as many songs as they do.
 
Cee Major said:
Timbaland's engineer used to have an article in each Scratch Magazine issue. I know Bryan Michael Cox has 1. Engineering is a very tedious process, and I think if these big name producers did their own completely, they wouldn't have as many songs as they do.
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yeah thats true, also on the dilla documentery they interview his engineer, i forget his name. The dude said dilla would sit there and tell him what to do, whether its lower the sounds of his bass, lower the hats, etc...
 
Pretty much every big time producer has engineers they work with, even if they are an "engineer" themselves (meaning they went to school for it), I've heard them say that you gotta have more than one set of ears hearing a final mix before it goes out.
 
most producers and most real producers will tell you the same thing that is has little to do with beats and so much to do with guiding the session. basically you make the beat track it bring it to the studio and then guide the artist through the song and let the engineer deal with the recording aspect of the vocals and then you and the artist sit in with the engineer during the mix process. thats how Ive always done it with artists if I wasnt mixing it and recording it myself also. I know 9th worked without an engineer the same way RZA did for years. I dont think premier or pete rock ever had to record without an engineer just because of the way they got into the game. And Dr Dre and Puffy are probably the best combo of engineer and producer youll ever find.
 
i agree with the unsigned thing chris was saying. i do both but alot of artists approach me like "oh do you have beats too?" or "oh do you mix/master" etc - they want both when they're unsigned

when you can do both at a pro level it also makes everything alot faster.

a session with a skilled artist for me might go from concept, to beat, to recorded song all in one day. I might even have the time to mix the whole thing then and there so they leave with a finished product if they can afford to stay that long
 
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