When a musician first encounters the professionals in a recording studio, he may have many questions about their roles and responsibilities. That's why we've created a quick guide to the basic people you need to create a high-quality record.

AUDIO ENGINEER

This is your technical expert when you show up at the studio on the day of recording. He will conduct the session in the recording studio, set up microphones, record all inputs in Cubase, Pro Tools, Logic Pro (or other software) and generally do all the work of capturing any sound that the musician wants. This part is extremely important, as high-quality recording facilitates the rest of the audio production process. Also, small solutions such as microphone selection can have a big downstream effect.

EDITOR

This is the hidden but essential work in almost every one of your favorite songs and recordings. The editor takes all these recordings and selects the best takes, making the performances tighter and adjusting the vocals. The significance of this phase is often overlooked, but there may be a difference between "this is a pretty good record" and a record like "THIS IS MY FAVORITE SONG". When you take these little time differences between drums and guitars and tune them in exactly, those powerful moments pop out of the speakers and hit your fans right in the face (in a good way). The trick is that editing should not be overdone, otherwise the feeling of the song is lost. That's why a good editor shows up right away.

MIXING ENGINEER

Time for analogy: if the audio engineer is the one who buys the food, and the editor is the one who does all the chopping and measurements, then the mixing engineer is the chef who mixes everything together. Their responsibility to the recording process is to take all of these individual tracks and apply EQ, compression, pan, reverb, delay, saturation, and tones to other instruments to bring everything together into a cohesive sound that matches the musician's or producer's vision. Outside of the producer, this is perhaps the most creative role of someone hired during the recording process. Two different mix engineers can take the same song and achieve drastically different results.

MASTERING ENGINEER

At this point, the work on the song is 90-95% complete. What the mastering engineer can contribute is to achieve accuracy, volume and clarity so that the songs merge like an album and match the agreed sound level of such artists. Although mastering is a critical step in the process, it can't compensate for a bad recording or mix, so it's important to make sure the song is the best it can be before this stage.

It is important to note that mixing and mastering are two separate processes. The final mix will be quieter than the recorded product (because the mixing engineers leave room for the master engineer to work). Each song needs both mixing and mastering, so make sure you plan this for your project.

PRODUCER

The producer is the creative mind that joins the band or performer throughout the process of creating the song. He helps with the pre-production to make sure the song is ready to record. Many times he will even help with the composition and arrangement and the final improvement of the music that will be recorded. The producer will participate during the recording of each song, as well as with the selection of microphones. He will be with the musician in the processes of editing, mixing and mastering. Sometimes the band will serve as their own producer, making these decisions along the way, but this is most often when the band already has a lot of recording experience.

Now you know what roles each professional plays in a studio. Keep in mind that one person can have several roles. For example, your audio engineer can also do the editing. Or one person can do both mixing and mastering. It is important to ensure that each of these tasks is completed qualitatively and on time for the next stage. Get in touch for more information.