Review: How to Be a Record Producer in the Digital Era by Megan Perry

Billboard Books, paperback, 256 pages, $18.95 list

www.watsonguptill.com

By Jon Chappell

Your ears are fried and your fingers are throbbing after a long day of music-making, yet you’re still yearning to improve your recording knowledge. So what activity can you engage in that won’t further destroy your digits and enervate your ears? You can read! There are all sorts of third-party manuals and other sources of literature that are meant to inform and be absorbed, allowing you to progress while giving at least two of your five music-making senses (touch and hearing) a break. One such book that enables you to bone up on the career side of your music is How to Be a Record Producer in the Digital Era, by Megan Perry. It’s published by Billboard Books, who has a large catalog of titles that covers the music business and recording industry.

Ms. Perry not only touches on all the basics of the recording business, she delves into technology, going so far as to advise on building a home or projects studio—and stating why that’s a good idea for any producer. Though much of the information is general, especially regarding technology, it’s absolutely accurate and up to date. If you are a business oriented person, reading the chapters entitled “Recording and Engineering Fundamentals,” and “Assembling a Home or Project Studio” are a good overview for current technology trends. Conversely, if you’re more technically oriented, you may find chapters with the titles “Legal Issues and Contracts,” “A Template for Becoming a Successful Record Producer,” and “Working with Record Labels.” And industry folks from both sides of the negotiating table can benefit from chapters like “Planning a Recording Project” and “Working with Artists.”

The book can be experienced as a linear, straight-through read, as it has a logical progression from the general to the specific, and it maps out the steps for producing a record chronologically. It can also be read in a more modular fashion, as the table of contents presents the chapter titles and specific, targeted subheads designed for practical applications. The 12 chapters break down roughly into three types (though not delineated as such) with most of the chapters dealing with the “biz side,” three chapters chapters dealing with logistics in working on a project (“Working with the Production Team,” “Planning a Recording Project,” “Working with Artists”), and two technical chapters (“Recording and Engineering Fundamentals,” “Assembling a Home or Project Studio”).

As a bonus, Perry draws on her considerable experience interviewing many of the industry’s top record producers, studio managers, and record label A&R people, including Joe Chiccarelli, Cameron Webb, Tom Dumont, Slim Moon, David Bendeth, and Matt Wallace. The advice here is direct and helpful, as well as offering autobiographical clues as to how that individual achieved his brand of particular success. For example, No Doubt guitarist Tom Dumont reveals this good bit of strategy in Chapter 10, “Working with Artists,” under the subhead “Producer Roles When Interfacing with Artists:

“The problem with our band [No Doubt] when we were first starting out was that we didn’t have a really clear bandleader creatively. We wanted to be democratic and make sure everyone’s voice and opinion was heard and taken seriously, but at times there would be disagreements. At that point, we would often look to the producer to mediate between the band members and give impartial input, but still guide us in the proper direction. That way, we as band members wouldn’t take it so personally. I would take criticism better if a producer told me that part of the song or bridge wasn't appealing rather than the band member. ”

Often the quoted passages are laced with frustrations with the business, which can be just as entertaining and ultimately informative than general “work hard, do your best” platitudes. For example, in Chapter 8, “Working with Record Labels,” under the heading of “The Changing Role of A&R,” Joe Chiccarelli offers this prognostication:

“The business will in the very near future become more single oriented. This won’t stop people from wanting albums, but it will give talent different avenues for exposure. Currently independent labels have an edge in marketing to niche audiences, but as digital distribution becomes the major means of record buying, major labels will once again have the edge in marketing, promotion, and control over the digital pipeline.”

As an imprimatur, Geffen Records chairman Ron Fair wrote the foreword, which also serves double duty as an additional installment of useful, inspirational advice:

Table of Contents (Click for Larger Image).

“There are no rules to this game, except that playing it requires full contact, demanding your heart and soul, total concentration, and your willingness to be totally enslaved. To get started (as my mentor Bill Conti used to say), ‘get the job.’ Then bring professionalism, flexibility, people skills, ideas, a full toolbox, a well-stocked treasure chest, and a cell phone with a million contacts. Stay light on your feet and roll with the punches, yet stick to your vision. Confidence, charm, humility, good humor—they go a long way.”

A good test I like to perform on books is to take a subject I already know well and see how it’s presented. Even if you know a subject thoroughly, you can often learn something or appreciate a novel way of explaining something when it’s presented well. I found that to be the case here. Despite the wide swath of subject matter Perry undertakes, the individual topics are not short-shrifted. Her explanation of mic pres, to take a random example, is the perfect explanation you could offer a non-technical person at a lecture or casual Q&A. I like how she names names, too, as examples of popular analog mixing consoles, mic pres, microphones, DAWs, plug-ins, and other outboard gear. This is sometimes tricky and shifting ground, but the author handles it well.

My only reservations with the book are not with the writing or the editing (which is impeccable) but the production values. There’s not a trace of graphic enhancement in the entire 256-page package—no photos, no diagrams, no line art of any kind (not even on the cover). To be fair, this keeps the cost down. The book’s list price is $18.95, which, for a 256-page paperback, is pretty good, and I found it online from Amazon for $12.89. But it’s still obviously bare bones. Such quality writing covering such a broad scope deserve better—especially when “digital era” implies multimedia, and this book’s presentation is, ironically, so very old school. But it’s cheap, and the information is good and current, so that at least brings the ethos of the digital era to the fore. It’s a good read, and well worth repeated visits.