What does a producer actually do?
George Martin and The Beatles Many things, varying from scenario to scenario, from producer to producer. Many of us envision the tyrannical Phil Spector-esque super-producer of the ’60s, glowering at musicians rooted to their spots for long hours until the perfect take was attained. By contrast, think of the elegant George Martin working in gentle collaboration with The Beatles, writing orchestral parts, playing harpsichord, splicing odd bits of tape together to create psychedelic magic, completely devoted to helping the most inventive rock’n’roll band of all time realize its brilliant potential. Or, turning to a much more contemporary prototype, we find wizards like Kenneth Babyface Edmonds single-handedly creating entire productions (often of songs they’ve also written), thanks to drum loops, multi-timbral keyboards, and the endless flexibility of digital recording technology. Babyface But, whatever form he takes (and these are just a few examples), the producer bears responsibility
