“Mixology” with George Walker Petit: The Truth About Record Producers

George Walker Petit -- record producer -- takes a good look in the mirror.

“Cannolis Rock!!”

This is what I heard from the control room…

You gotta be kidding me. Cannolis. Here I am in L.A. in a session that has literally taken me three years to put together (I am producing and engineering, writing for it and arranging) and what I hear is an Italian-American accent getting all hot and bothered about…cannolis? The urge to descend into Brooklyn-speak is just too overwhelming. I have to engage.

“Who in heah is talkin’ cannolis, heh?”, says I, as I strut into the live room, arms out in the quintessentially questioning, universally recognized, Joe Pesci expression.

No answer. It’s like I don’t exist. In front of me I see Marc and Vinnie all red-faced and animated, hands waving in the air, each in a near crouch, facing one another, exchanging opinions on who makes the best cannolis in L.A. They both agree on some place called La Bella Luna or something like that — a local bakery that has their votes. Hands on hips, lips slightly pursed and with a quick sideways tilt of the head, Vinnie says in a near whisper of concurrence:

“Oh yeahhh…Bella Looona. Madonnnnnn….!”

Cannolis have brought them together. Not music, not yet.

Pastry Psychology

This is the first day of the sessions, the first half an hour in fact. I see immediately that these two participants have bonded because of their heritage and love of Italian pastry. It’s made them comfy with each other. Vinnie gets back to tweaking his drum kit and Marc, head still nodding, moves slowly toward the control room muttering about La Bella’s cannolis. And me, opportunist that I am, and seeing an opening here, I quickly snag my intern, Ian, and tell him quietly to track down this uber-bakery and order a dozen large cannolis.

Half an hour later, I walk into the live room munching on a fresh cannoli, fully ignoring Vinnie and Marc. They stop dead, and in perfect rhythmic and harmonic unison I hear them say:

“Yo! You DIDN’T !!”

Success. Instant trust and friendship. Crucial relationships that could have taken me hours or days to form and win in the studio have been forged in 30 minutes over a box of $18 cannolis. Big deal? Yes, in fact, really big deal.

I am a record producer. I don’t call it ‘CD’ producer or ‘music’ producer. I am a record producer in the old sense. When I was 13 years old, living in London and playing bass in West End Pubs with my band, Cajun, my good friend and band mate at the time, Matt Backer actually asked me what I wanted from music. I remember telling him, just outside The American School In London (ASL) where he was a student… “I want to play jazz guitar and be a record producer”. Careful what you wish.

Now I am 52 years old and both of those dreams have come true – with lots of years, lessons, laughs, gaffs, successes and now, cannolis.

So, what is a record producer? What is the job description? What are you called on to do? What do you actually produce?

Wow…now that I have put it out there as a question to myself, I guess I have to think about this and answer it. Not easy.

A Record Producer…For Real

But, much like the job and pursuit of record production itself, addressing this will teach me a great deal. I can tell you immediately that I will not be able to fully define this right here in the time and space allotted. What has taken me decades to learn and understand can not be more than outlined herein. But I can get the conversation started, and I invite you all to get in touch with me, ask me out for a beer and we can sit and discuss this further. YOU can “produce” THAT session!

Adjust the lights, and then some...How far will you go to make your clients comfortable?

First off, I don’t believe that a “producer” has a hard-and-fast job description. I have found over the years that an effective (notice I did not say “successful”) “RP” has to learn and practice so many skills that his or her resumé would be thought a pack of lies by most employers.

Let’s start with the laundry list — and we’ll pick a couple of line items to support — and in no particular order, we begin thus:

1. Psychiatrist
2. Task Master
3. Negotiator
4. Shameless manipulator of other people’s feelings and actions
5. Expert people person and communicator
6. Patience of a Saint
7. An understanding of human nature
8. LOTS of experience with musicians (egos) and the recording studio environment
9. A musician yourself (what, you didn’t think you needed that?)
10. Integrity
11. Honesty
12. Strong multi-tasking and planning skills
13. Strategist
14. Dreamer
15. Optimist
16. Realist
17. Ability to be flexible and instantly agile
18. Tact
19. Humor
20. A thirst for knowledge
21. Passion for music and art
22. Engineer (can you make a record by yourself? And I do NOT mean a person that simply knows how to get around Pro Tools or Logic — can you cut tape? Do you know the differences in mic patterns? Preamp design? How to tailor a reverb tail? Gain structure? A live room setup with natural cancellation? Could you run the session without the computer? Better bone up!)
23. The ability to accept one’s own mistakes and…laugh at them, publicly.

There. That’s the short list. Now re-read that list slowly and try to fit an example to each line item. Something that has happened to you or, something that you can imagine happening. Let me help!

A Daze in the Life

So you get into the session on Day Three, after two days of battle with the artist(s) and something tells you that this is just not going to work. The guitarist, you find out, has not slept well lately because the bassist has been seeing his ex. No kidding. It happens. Trust me.

But the music is not getting done. And your job is to get the music done. Clock’s ticking! Furthermore, you need to rent a set of Hammond Organ pedals for tomorrow’s session (the studio pedals just died). The studio manager is on you about a double booking she’s made in three days time, and the sax player in the horn section is not very good — and he paid for the session. Add to that your assistant engineer has screwed up a session by “misplacing” an audio file…and you have a good set of snafus to handle.

And none of this — NONE OF THIS — can invade the studio or your musicians. YOU have to deal. Ever see a duck calmly swimming on the surface of a calm lake? Now look under the surface at his little, maniacal legs…

Not realistic? Rubbish. For as many session days that go well, there are session days that require Herculean effort to simply get to the end of the day. You’d better be prepared to handle all that while discussing tempo, key, feel and whether that last tune actually needed that bridge or not. And then, you have to get an emotional performance from the lead singer (because her best friend heard the last one and didn’t think it was “fun” enough).

Console yourself -- this job is about a lot more than music.

Handle the Truth

A producer is not really the guy that sits in the back of the control room and makes calls to stars to get the party going, although tomorrow that might be a part of your job. A good producer, and effective producer is the guy that makes it all happen, solves the problems, talks the musicians down and, hopefully does all of this and more without imposing his/her personal stamp on the music so much so that you do the record what Phil did to “Let It Be.” Unless you are asked to be the next Sir George, be gentle…tact.

The band will be counting on you to expedite, enable and navigate them and their music through the process. You job involves creating a team. The team consists of the musicians, the engineer and you. The engineer is responsible for getting the right sound — the sound you and the band are after — recorded, and perhaps with some creative input, given that trust. YOU are responsible for getting the vision of the artist recorded. Hopefully at an extremely high level of quality.

I just worked a session that, as I said earlier, literally took three years to pull together. It involved some of the most famous and talented people in the music business today. It involved audio tracking a full DVD shoot, flights all over the country a budget of $180k, two other engineers and so far, three studios…and three more to go. It has been at the same time the most challenging and the most rewarding work I have ever done in music. I assure you: I have had to address each and every one of the 23 numbered items above at some point or another during the process.

In the next few articles, I will bring you all into the sessions with stories, photos and some problem solving exercises for us all. So stay tuned. This should be interesting, fun AND entertaining. It should address the needs and curiosities of you audio geeks, you producers and engineers and you musicians.

Now you have to excuse me. I have to finish a rough mix today, order a new set of Dynaudio monitors, write a review on a piece of gear, update the project budget going forward and then, I pray…go to the gym and practice the guitar a bit. And I really want to have dinner with my wife tonight.

Cheers!
Gwp

PS For more information on the project of which I speak and write – visit http://www.dzdap.com.

George Walker Petit thinks a lot about mixing and many other musical things. An award-winning producer and mixer, he is based in New York City. Visit George at his Website, and keep up with him and the Drew Zingg Debut Album Project here.

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