Music Technology Forum – Week 4: Right producer for artist.

This week in Music Tech Forum, we addressed two key issues: right producer for artist, and matching production style with genre. We also increased our hearing memory by listening to many styles of songs and picking out unique characteristics.

Picking the right producer for an artist is a critical decision. By choosing the right producer, an artist is ensuring himself or herself the best mix possible. A techno artist wouldn’t choose someone who would produce a song with a boring tune and a simple drum beat. They would choose someone who can produce a catchy tune that gets stuck in people’s heads with many breakdowns to keep listeners interested, which brings up the point: ‘matching production style with genre.’

A production style is important when producing an artist. To have the right style that is different to other styles is essential. For example, last week we heard Rick Rubin’s style of the bass drum having a click sound. This method is different to other producer’s style.
Benny Benassi uses a very unique ‘instrument’, which is noticeable in many of his songs. He also uses the same fade out ending in a number of his songs aswell. This production style work with the chosen genre, and by listening to his songs, you can recognise it as the work of Benny Benassi.
Although some artists choose producers who work with their chosen genre, other artists run the risk of choosing a completely different producer who can bring a whole level of uniqueness to the track.

Unique characteristics heard during playback:
Cypress Hill – Their songs start off with a low waveform and dramatically increase to a much larger waveform.
Prodigy – Gradual build up with a new layer of instruments every four or eight bars.
Enigma – Very unique panflute noise that could only be recognised as Enigma.
Hip-hop – Catchy drum beat to grab your attention with breakdown to keep you interested.
Live drummers – The use of live drummers over loops.