Musical director, musical producer and 2nd engineer differences!

[No4PCs]

Well, i would like know what is the differences between functions of that persons in a recording session with a pro band for example...
I mean, the producer says: " Sing that part again , more soft..." or is the Musical Director which says that?
And the 2nd engineer, works in conjunction only with the producer too?
But i can´t understand how all that people working together withou misunderstood musical changes in the songs, whatever...
And the Artistic Director do influences in the recording process too?
Sorry my poor english as well.

[phillysoulman]

Originally Posted by No4PCs

Well, i would like know what is the differences between functions of that persons in a recording session with a pro band for example...
I mean, the producer says: " Sing that part again , more soft..." or is the Musical Director which says that?
And the 2nd engineer, works in conjunction only with the producer too?
But i can´t understand how all that people working together withou misunderstood musical changes in the songs, whatever...
And the Artistic Director do influences in the recording process too?
Sorry my poor english as well.

Three totaly different animals.
The producer is the "shot caller", as in a movie director.
In fact,the term 'PRODUCER" is really a misnomer because in the film world the producer is the money man or the one who gets the financing.

But for some strange reason, someone a very long time ago in the 20th century decided to use that term for the musical DIRECTOR of a recording session...and it stuck.

I believe that Lieber and Stoller were the first production team who were given that credit back in the late fifties when they were on staff at Atlantic records and later,the infamous Phil Spector really glorified that title with his megalomaniac dictatorial rulership in the studio, but thats another story!!

Back in the early days,the a&r men were in fact the defacto "producer" because "a&r" stands for artists and repertoire because they were the ones who found the "repertoire"(songs) for the artists and ran the show in the studio.
They usually ate alot of tuna sandwiches and pizza, smoked Lucky Strikes, and sat in the corner and read the racing forms.
He also said "what do you think?" a heluva lot.

Now, the second engineer is a tape op if you are using tape, a tea boy if you are drinking tea, the guy who places the food orders, makes all kind of runs, and sometimes actually gets rough levels, as hes is usualy just an intern or a very low man on the totem pole...for a hot minute.
Sometimes, he can be better than the enginer and he may try to show his skills on the down low and eventually he may even ace out the main engineer of a gig..but not too often.
Now, a musical director is the guy who goes out on the road and conducts the band and gets about three times more money than the musicians..sometimes..but MDs come and go so stick to the studio..for now.

[No4PCs]

Now i see...Thanks Philly...

[phillysoulman]

Originally Posted by No4PCs

Now i see...Thanks Philly...

Anytime,bro.

[Bob Olhsson]

The title "producer" came out of radio.

[psycho_monkey]

Originally Posted by phillysoulman

[
Now, the second engineer is a tape op if you are using tape, a tea boy if you are drinking tea, the guy who places the food orders, makes all kind of runs, and sometimes actually gets rough levels, as hes is usualy just an intern or a very low man on the totem pole...for a hot minute.
Sometimes, he can be better than the enginer and he may try to show his skills on the down low and eventually he may even ace out the main engineer of a gig..but not too often.

I'd agree with that - apart from the "usually just an intern" comment.

A 2nd engineer (or assistant as we call them in the UK) is a paid position.

Anyone who is capable of patching, taking recalls, running PT when necessary, board automation, sorting out any technical problems, knowing all the quirks of that particular studio, as well as food orders/tea making/client liason is worthy of paying. You don't learn to do all that overnight.

An intern or "work experience" may help with some of that - and may even assist on some very simple sessions, where maybe the engineer is in-house themselves and knows the studio intimately or something.

But putting an untrained work experience kid on an outside session is poor practice by a studio, and not paying an experienced assistant equally so.

A good assistant on the other hand, can contribute a grea deal to the efficiency and success of a session, and the best are capable engineers in their own right.

So low-paid, but not quite so low on the totem pole, if that's alright with everybody....one day, a great assistant might just save your session.

[chris carter]

Musical Director: This is a live show thing. M.D. is the arranger and band leader of a live band.

2nd Engineer: The assistant to the recording engineer. It's a technical job, and a customer service job. Do what the engineer says, set up mics, log takes, get coffee, etc.

Producer: Really should be called "Record Director" because the job is essentially the same as a film director. In the old days film titles and recording titles were similar and there was simply no "director" in recording because back in the day the style of recording was (now) referred to as "documentary". When people started building 4 and 8 tracks and they added filters to boards, people had better options to overdub and shape tone and kablamo: you have creativity not just in performance, but in the recording itself. It used to be the producer (logistics and money-man back then) and the engineer in the studio and it was the producer that started asking for all these creative things to be done. Because it was the producer asking for this stuff to be done, they started referring to thsoe records as being "produced". Over time the record producer involved into more of a directoral role. Unfortunately, they never changed the name of the title from "producer" which is why so many people get confused over what a record producer actually does these days. The situation is getting more confusing in these low-budget days where prodcers in rhythmic format genres, especially hip-hop, are starting to take on a lot of the engineering duties for cost-cutting reasons (ie. no budget to go to an outside studio and hire an engineer).