Re: Production-- Ralph Emery's take on this thread

[Joe Gracey]

Jon Weisberger wrote:
> 
> Matt says:
> 
> >       There are as many producer/musician relationships as there are
> > musicians and producers. There's the Ken Nelson school, where he kept
> > out of the way of creativity for the most part, letting Buck Owens run
> > the show while he ran the technical end, listened for problems.
> 
> Except that Nelson apparently wasn't nearly so hands-off when it came to the
> Louvin Brothers (it was his comments about the mandolin that got Ira into
> such a swivet).  It really is hard to generalize about this stuff.

I saw him produce a record one time. He did the weirdest thing: when it
came time to mix, he got a pair of good headphones, set up a little
table in front of a picture window out in the studio, opened up a good
bottle of red wine, and sat there looking out over the Hill Country,
sipping wine, and listening to the mix progress over the phones. It
finally dawned on me what he was doing- he was removing himself from the
process so that all he could be aware of was the mix itself. Brilliant,
really. (Other guys do the same thing by leaving and just coming in from
time to time to see how it's going.)

-- 
Joe Gracey
President-For-Life, Jackalope Records
http://www.kimmierhodes.com