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Although I don't like country at all Billy Decker has been on NTM as well and he seems like a pretty awesome guy.
The producer is basically the most important person in the studio during recording. He is the guy with the vision who knows what he's aiming for and knows what he has to do to get there. Sometimes there's a lot of confusion between engineering, producing and mixing but the actual task of producing doesn't really involve any engineering skills or mixing skills .. it's the art of taking a bands music and making it more palatable and successful to the masses. This is why record deals used to insist on bands using certain producers. The guarantee of a sellable product and a chance to recoup the labels investment.
Matt Lange is the best example of the art of Producing. He steered a pretty average Sheffield rock band into global USA multi platinum stardom. He took a pretty average country singer from being mediocre to being just about the biggest female country pop singer to date. When AC DC. looked done for he gave them their biggest album ever. That's just a few examples
What he does in terms of attention to detail and perfection is pretty well known but it's a lot more than that. He's basically looking at a rough sketch of a song, rewriting bits of it, coming up with harmonies, counter melodies, layers of extra instrumentation but most importantly he's got the ability to hear it as someone who isn't involved with music at all would hear it. That's the art, that ability to hear it as a punter despite the fact you're closer to the project than the actual band.
One thing you notice about successful bands is generally they know the value of a producer and aren't scared of being guided under his direction. When I was running the studio we had a lot of bands who tried to produce themselves ... just didn't see the value in paying for a producer and 9 times out of 10 ended up with a product they kind of liked themselves but then complained when it did nothing sales wise.
Producing is a very difficult job though generally. You need a lot of people skills, the ability to push people beyond what they think they can do without knocking their confidence if it doesn't come off. You need a lot of resolve because if the band can't see what you're aiming for it they can lose patience and start complaining and the control rooms just filled with tension the whole time.
Mitchell Froom has done some of my favourite-sounding albums too - including the first three Crowded House albums, although ironically the one I like best is Together Alone, produced by Youth... who apparently (from accounts of the sessions) barely seemed to know what he was doing!
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
Oddly, Mutt Lange is a big no for me. Took a killer heavy metal band from Sheffield and turned them into a slick but meh pop band.
Don't really have to quantify that, do I?
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
Also hugely rate Steven Wilson, Steve Albini, Teo Macero, Daniel Lanois and David Torn.
Studio: https://www.voltperoctave.com
Music: https://www.euclideancircuits.com
Me: https://www.jamesrichmond.com
The music's great, but it's often fairly obvious that it's been produced on a very limited budget - in many ways I like that, but in years gone by those bands might have had the chance to work with experienced producers, who'd have helped with the sound and the arrangements (which could also be a negative, if the band was pushed in an overly commercial direction). Now it seems like they miss out on that kind of outside advice and maybe don't achieve their full potential.
At the other end of the scale you get the big-name R&B artists who no longer make an album with one producer, they use a whole army of them - sometimes several on a single track.
Anyway, yes, Martin Birch. Mutt Lange did great work but Def Leppard seemed to become too dependent on him, to the detriment of their later albums, whereas AC/DC were strong enough to keep their own identity. And back in the '70s, '80s and early '90s I liked a lot of albums produced by Jeff Glixman, Neil Kernon and Max Norman. I don't really know any modern producers.
Edit: I'd most probably choose Steve Albini if I could make an album somehow.
Amazing work.
Studio: https://www.voltperoctave.com
Music: https://www.euclideancircuits.com
Me: https://www.jamesrichmond.com
There are probably only a handful of producers who have defined an era to that extent.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
Beatsirs, LL Cool J, t la rock, danzig, masters of reality, Trouble, raging slab, cult, cash and neil diamond.
He has also done rhcp. Swings and roundabouts
Mitchell Froom produced some Richard Thompson albums - I listened to one the other day - it still sounds really good.