I Wanna Be a POLLducer: The Voting thread for Producers, Recording Engineers, and Studio Wizards (DEADLINE: Midnight, Friday October 14th)

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/2f/%D0%93%D0%95%D0%A0%D0%9C%D0%90%D0%9D%D0%A1%D0%9A%D0%90%D0%AF_%D0%A0%D0%90%D0%94%D0%98%D0%9E%D0%A1%D0%A2%D0%90%D0%9D%D0%A6%D0%98%D0%AF_TORN.FU.G._%28%D0%B2%D0%B5%D1%80%D1%85%29.jpg/300px-%D0%93%D0%95%D0%A0%D0%9C%D0%90%D0%9D%D0%A1%D0%9A%D0%90%D0%AF_%D0%A0%D0%90%D0%94%D0%98%D0%9E%D0%A1%D0%A2%D0%90%D0%9D%D0%A6%D0%98%D0%AF_TORN.FU.G._%28%D0%B2%D0%B5%D1%80%D1%85%29.jpg

The only non-genre, non-artist-specific poll yet! This one is for those behind-the-scenes masters of the recording studio - the people who have shaped the sound of popular music through their studio wizardry, engineering, and recording techniques. I am allowing any and all people/groups of people who have received Producer or Recording Engineer credits on recordings. This includes old-fashioned recording engineers, record producers, self-producing artists, remixers, duos/teams of producers (which will be counted as a single entry), across all genres, throughout the history of recorded music. I am going to be fairly open-minded about who qualifies, figuring it will all shake out in the voting anyway.

I'll accept ranked ballots of up to 20 entries, scoring will go as follows:

01:40, 02:36, 03:33, 04:30, 05:27, 06:25, 07:24, 08:23, 09:22, 10:21
11:20, 12:19, 13:18, 14:17, 15:16, 16:15, 17:14, 18:13, 19:12, 20:11

Send your ballots to conditionofmuzak at yahoo dot com. Deadline is midnight EDT, October 7th. I reserve the right to hold balloting open longer than that if necessary. This thread is for lobbying for votes for various people and a general discussion about the historical role of production and the various people involved in shaping it.

I will try not to fuck this up too much :)

would hope this would attract some popists/rap goons/dance music heads but I dunno...

The first time I became aware of what a producer could contribute to music was when I noticed the name 'Bomb Squad' in the liner notes of Fear of a Black Planet. I was 13 years old...

Stoked!

Some big names to toss out early --

Teo Macero (Miles Davis, obviously, but a zillion other jazz recordings)
George Martin (Beatles +)
Geoff Emerick (Beatles, Elvis Costello)
Tom Dowd
Rudy Van Gelder
Manfred Eicher

Who were the main producers at Motown in the 60s? They might not have been amazing sonic wizards but they helped shape such a distinct sound. Sylvia Moy's name popped up while I was listening to Stevie Wonder records -- who else?

Holland/Dozier/Holland and Norman Whitfield were the two most influential producers/teams at Motown/in the world.

Holland/Dozier/Holland

I thought these guys were just songwriters...?

Some interesting discussions to be had about the people who helped develop the material (like Martin) vs the people who helped develop the recordings of the material (Emerick).

some other huge names to throw out there:

Phil Spector
Tony Visconti
George Martin
Brian Wilson
Giorgio Moroder
Timbaland
DJ Premier
Pete Rock
RZA
Brian Eno
Joe Boyd
Joe Meek
Jimmy Miller
Dave Fridmann
Steve Albini

Bomb Squad
Jam/Lewis
The Dream lol

xp They were also producers, from "Heat Wave" all the way through to "Bernadette."

the neptunes
the guy that does portishead
tricky stewart

kanye?

eno is alltime for me, only guy I can think of who made me a better (amateur) engineer just by listening to his records

A name I want to throw into the ring here, but I can get really tiresome on the subject so I try not to mention him too much -- Frank Zappa. Except for 1970-71 when he was stretching himself a little thin with A&R and impresario type duties, his records all sound amazing -- really well recorded, from intricate razor-blade edit pieces to full live shows. Even later Synclavier stuff sounds good, though I don't like the material. Plus he produced Trout Mask Replica, Jean-Luc Ponty, Grand Funk, L. Shankar, etc etc

danja
bloodshy & avant
max martin
dr luke
babyface
mannie fresh
xenomania
wiley
michael mayer

A few names to toss in to the mix, xpost probably already here:

Lieber and Stoller
Joe Meek
Gamble and Huff
Tony Visconti
The Chic Organisation
Martin Rushent
Martin Hannett
Trevor Horn
Bomb Squad
Chris Thomas
Rick Rubin

Andrew Loog Oldham: threat or menace?

Chris Desjardins (aka Chris D.) who produced many of the earliest releases on the Slash label (Dream Syndicate, Gun Club, Flesh Eaters).

Tom Wilson (Dylan, Simon & Garfunkel, VU, early Mothers, Nico, Sun Ra, Cecil Taylor)

Will try to mention the artists produced when I throw a name out. A lot of the hip hop producers, I have no idea what acts they're associated with.

if we say the-dream does rhat include tricky stewart and los da mystro, or just the-dream himself?

*that

Certified Number One: Mutt Fucking Lange.

Conny Plank

Just to be a bit of a grenade rolled into the conference room -- what makes Mutt Lange worth considering?

King Tubby
Tchad Blake

XP: I was just kidding. I like his name, and I just read somewhere today that he 'assembled Hysteria note for note', which I think is quite an accomplishment.

Lee Perry

Leslie Kong -- love, love, love his records -- Dekker's Israelites, Marley's Caution, "Mother and Child Reunion"

Just to be a bit of a grenade rolled into the conference room -- what makes Mutt Lange worth considering?

The evolution of the possibilities for hugeness that started with Highway To Hell, reached its apogee with Back In Black, and nearly devolved into winking self-parody with Hysteria.

Don't kid. I will most assuredly be voting for Mutt Lange.

Oh, I will be too. The crack about Hysteria was meant more along the lines of Mutt thinking, "How absurdly can I expand/extend the most defining characteristics of my sound?" And it worked.

Since there's no way I'll be able to listen to all the music by these producers, so I've decided to listen to the top albums of just one producer this week.

Mutt Lange it will be.

I love Hysteria for its complete and utter sound overdrive. It's like taking a bath in soft electricity.

Love or hate the Nashville sound of the 50s and 60s, Owen Bradley has to be considered here.

if we say the-dream does rhat include tricky stewart and los da mystro, or just the-dream himself?

does the Dream produce stuff by himself or only with those other two dudes...?

Also Billy Sherrill and Chet Atkins. xp to self

Shelly Yakus
Phil Ramone
Mike Chapman

Those were the first three people whose names I remember showing up on different records that I liked, and trying to learn what they did.

most of The-Dream's solo stuff and hits written for other artists was primarily produced by Los Da Mystro and/or Tricky Stewart with him co-producing, until he started doing more solo productions last year (i.e. after he had made most of his most popular work)

alan lomax?

Oh shit, yeah -- Lomax

Sam Phillips!

some more hip hop dudes:

Dust Brothers
DJ Pooh
Dr. Dre (lol that it took this long for his name to come up)
I don't like him but assume someone will vote for J Dilla
Rick Rock

most of The-Dream's solo stuff and hits written for other artists was primarily produced by Los Da Mystro and/or Tricky Stewart with him co-producing, until he started doing more solo productions last year (i.e. after he had made most of his most popular work)

this is kind of an odd situation. Presumably the only reason this would matter would be the risk of vote splitting (ie one person votes for The-Dream, everyone else votes for the collaborative stuff)...? Perhaps for the sake of simplicity we can say just vote for The-Dream and that will include everything with his name on it, including his stuff co-produced with his collaborators.

Marley Marl
Prince Paul

bob thiele
david briggs

wanna say don galluci for fun house but i have no idea whatever else he did

Conny Plank seconded

Bob Thiele, though...I mean, did he have much (or any) say about what went on at any of the sessions?

Don Galluci played keyboard on "Louie Louie," but impressive as that is, doesn't add to his production credits.

Spot (lol)

Les Paul
Sly Stone
Giorgio Gomelsky
Norman Smith
Roy Halee
Lou Adler

also big hiphop names to throw out there-

Easy Mo Be (most famous for Ready To Die and Me Against The World)
DJ Quik

imo deserves to be a top ten contender-

Babyface

Bones Howe!

I'm trying to come up with the best name to represent the French Touch. it's between Daft Punk and Alan Braxe, I guess?

Kinda challopsy, won't be on my ballot: T-Bone Burnett

can't forget my man John Leckie!

Jost Gebers
Giovanni Bonadrini

let's consider nigel godrich, too

Jacques Canetti
Jean Claude Vannier
Phil Brown
Joe Tarsia

David Axelrod
Curt Boettcher

I find it sad that John Leckie will always be connected in my mind with The Bends :(

that is sad

Kim Fowley

Terry Melcher

Todd Rundgren

Brian Wilson

oh, Shakey already mentioned Brian

jack endino? since this thread turned into a biggest namecheck ever

Glyn Johns
Kit Lambert
Shel Talmy

Is this going to continue like this all week? :)

lol I dunno. Thought there would be more confusion over the subject for some reason

Don Galluci played keyboard on "Louie Louie," but impressive as that is, doesn't add to his production credits.

― shake it, shake it, sugary pee (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Thursday, September 29, 2011 3:56 PM (9 minutes ago) Bookmark

all i hear is galluci galluci louie louie fendi fendi prada

I don't know who produced most of my favourite non-rap records. You guys may be throwing out names where I've heared the records they are involved in 1000s of times but still have never paid attention to who they were and what they contributed.

^ THIS

if you don't pay attention to who produced what, maybe voting in this poll is not for you...?

unless you are asking for links to CVs for everyone listed so far... (ie, John Leckie produced the Dukes of Stratosphear, the Verve's first album, a bunch of mid-period Fall records, Radiohead's the Bends, and also served as an engineer/tape op on a bunch of early 70s stuff at Abbey Road)

I mean that's like coming on a thread and saying "I don't know who any of these rappers are, but I like that song where the guy talks over a beat"

xp well you can tell, say, an Albini, when you hear his record (but then again hes an "engineer", if it makes any difference)

oh, I think we forgot Phil Ek, he's quite distinctive with his guitar sound

i don't see why linking to discographies for any/all of these guys wouldn't be a great idea

prett y sure all these guys have wiki entries

if you don't pay attention to who produced what, maybe voting in this poll is not for you...?

Shadow Morton!

The DFA!

btw Shakey - the ballots are to be 20 names long? 'cause you listed scoring up to #30 and that confuses me a bit

fwiw I don't mean to be a dick, I just don't want to do 75+ wikipedia searches for all the dudes already listed. if there was some way to look up links en masse let me know, I have everything nommed so far in a list

btw Shakey - the ballots are to be 20 names long? 'cause you listed scoring up to #30 and that confuses me a bit

d'oh my bad. Yeah it should be 20 (I c+p'd from the Stevie Wonder thread, which allowed up to 30)

well im still going to vote, i just thought that the nomination+voting type thread would be to encourage people to vote for someone you admire. like in the timbaland poll people posted youtubes of songs others may not have heard before, would it be too horrible to say Steve Albini (the guy who did In Utero, Rid Of Me etc.)

Just replace the spaces in the names with an underscore and add 'http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/' in front of it. That should cover 95% of all names mentioned, if they were spelled right of course.

Like http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mutt_Lange

Robert John "Mutt" Lange (play /ˈlæŋ/;[1] born November 11, 1948) is a Zambian-born British record producer and songwriter, usually known by his nickname "Mutt". Lange is one of the most successful producers in rock history. He has produced albums for artists such as AC/DC, Nickelback, Def Leppard, Outlaws, Foreigner, The Cars, Bryan Adams, Billy Ocean, Savoy Brown, The Corrs and Maroon 5. His past projects included producing and writing songs with Canadian country singer and ex-wife Shania Twain. Her 1997 album, Come on Over, which he produced, is the all time best selling album by a female artist.[2] Lange's latest project is a track called "Yoü and I" on Lady Gaga's second studio album, Born This Way.

lol

fine then, a bunch of wiki links for my noms:
Nigel Godrich - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nigel_Godrich
Jack Endino - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Endino + http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Endino_discography
Phil Ek - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phil_Ek
The DFA - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_DFA#Production

ANT BANKS
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ant_Banks#Production_discography

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wY8cM2DNUjY

Just replace the spaces in the names with an underscore and add 'http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/' in front of it. That should cover 95% of all names mentioned, if they were spelled right of course.

I did this for the list I have and every time I try to post it I get a "an error occurred" message. wtf

Joe Gibbs

Mannie Fresh
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mannie_Fresh_production_discography

KLC
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KLC

Glyn Johns - Who's Next
Kit Lambert - The Who Sell Out
Shel Talmy - My Generation
Jost Gebers - most/all FMP recordings
Giovanni Bonadrini - most/all Soul Note/Black Saint recordings

Scientist

youtube searches are broken for me right now apparently, otherwise I would've posted some already

I have to lol a bit at Kit Lambert -- his Who records sounded awful!

Talmy did some great Kinks stuff tho, among other things

Joe Gibbs - Majestic Dub
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ke87cyqpIis

Don Zientara - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_Zientara - Minor Threat, Fugazi
Calvin Johnston - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calvin_Johnson_%28musician%29 - Modest Mouse two first albums, The Microphones and lots of other stuff at his Dub Narcotic studio

if we're puttin Ant Banks out there, gotta big up Shock G imho:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6tqn7uhYKk

I have to lol a bit at Kit Lambert -- his Who records sounded awful!

I dunno, I think they're hit-or-miss. "I Can See For Miles," "So Sad About Us," and most of Tommy sound great, but there's a lot of poorly-miked drums and wonky mixes on his productions. My nom for him was mainly as conceptual enabler. Or something.

For me, John Leckie = The Posies' "Dear 23"

top of my head

Les Paul - the first
Conny Plank - aka Krautrock
Louis Barron - engineer / instrument designer for the first electronic music studio in the united states, used by Cage / Tudor
King Tubby
Brian Eno
Tom Dowd - quietly inventing everything for decades before engineering decisions were recognized by anyone to have an aesthetic component
Keith Shocklee
Geoff Emerick - his first day of work = engineering "Tomorrow Never Knows"
Joe Meek
Kurt Graupner - Faust's live-in engineer

Shock G for sure
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t1vBpbr2JL4

John Leckie:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMGcaDYSrMM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FuPfbfJm2rc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZNC2rXWyAhQ

Here are explanations of some of the people I mentioned...

Les Paul - invented multitrack recording, maybe the first to use varispeed, etc.

Sly Stone - produced his own stuff

Giorgio Gomelsky - produced early Yardbirds, Soft Machine, Gong, Magma, Material. more of an old fashioned impressario type of producer rather than a hands-on technical guy

Norman Smith - produced Piper at the Gates of Dawn (and the next few), SF Sorrow, engineered all Beatles records up to '65

Jacques Canetti - not sure exactly what his role was but is listed as a producer on a lot of cool french music like Gainsbourg, Brigitte Fontaine, Jacques Higelin, etc.

Jean Claude Vannier - Gainsbourg arranger. not sure if he quite counts, but responsible for the arrangements on Histoire Du Melody Nelson

Phil Brown - an engineer at Olympic in the '60s with the Stones, Small Faces, Hendrix, Leonard Cohen, Dusty Springfield, T.Rex, The Move, Traffic, Troggs, then at Island in the '70s, worked with Bowie, Cat Stevens, Nillson, Zeppelin, Mott the Hoople, etc. very long discography oh, Talk Talk

Joe Tarsia - engineer at Sigma Sound in the '70s -- the sound of Philly Soul, Gamble & Huff, etc. Bowie's Young Americans.

the most frequent name that pops up when I hear a great or interesting sounding record and wonder: "who produced this?" =

Hugh Jones - partial discog here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugh_Jones_(producer)
personal faves probably ClockDVA Advantage (1983) and The Sound From The Lion's Mouth (1981)

also throw Mike Thorne into the mix

Chris Thomas enthusiastically seconded!

Thom Bell (Spinners, Stylistics, Delfonics) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thom_Bell
Teddy Riley (Guy, Blackstreet, "My Prerogative", "Rump Shaker", "Dangerous") http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teddy_Riley_%28producer%29

Phil Brown - an engineer at Olympic in the '60s with the Stones, Small Faces, Hendrix, Leonard Cohen, Dusty Springfield, T.Rex, The Move, Traffic, Troggs, then at Island in the '70s, worked with Bowie, Cat Stevens, Nillson, Zeppelin, Mott the Hoople, etc. very long discography oh, Talk Talk

Cannot be emphasized enough! Also i think it's Phill with two l's. He has a book of recollections out now incl. whole chapters about the Talk Talk sessions.

I would add, from the classical side of things, John Culshaw and Kenneth Wilkinson, two primary architects of the Decca sound (aka orchestral heaven).

We can consider Steven Stapleton the producer of virtually all of Current 93's output, right? Him.

Also even though people have already mentioned him two or three times, just wanna say Tony Visconti will probs get my vote in the poll.

He has a book of recollections out now incl. whole chapters about the Talk Talk sessions.

I read a bunch of this while staying with my brother - pretty interesting stuff

Teddy Park (K-pop genius) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teddy_Park_production_discography

Tony Visconti:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KDAh19tms4U
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2j4mfErOeqg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uYecJKX2Z2Y
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lqITF_oehFE

Yasutaka Nakata! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yasutaka_Nakata
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=edyARJq9sgM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GmWRUVf-vfM

hope this doesn't turn into a general artists poll (everyone voting for the producers of their favorite albums/bands)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nile_Rodgers#Official_Production_.28partial.29

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernard_Edwards#Production

are we voting Chic Organisation or Rodgers/Edwards?

Oh wait damn SANDY PEARLMAN y'all. (Practically the 'showrunner' of the early BOC records and their metamusical mystical ethos)

wd nominate Chic Organisation tbh but y'know a lot of things are sketchy

Mitch Easter fo sho.

there was a time that every record i bought that featured buzz pop guitars was produced by craig leon

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Craig_Leon

of course, top of my list would be david axelrod but he's already been given props.

other notables :

clive langer & alan winstanley : whenever madness tried other folks, the results just weren't as good.

oh, and then there is adrian sherwood who is surely worthy of some love in such a poll

btw Borys Dejnarowicz made his own list of producers a few months ago, I guess it might come in handy http://www.substanceonly.net/music/producers.html

fwiw I don't mean to be a dick, I just don't want to do 75+ wikipedia searches for all the dudes already listed. if there was some way to look up links en masse let me know, I

oh i wasn't suggesting you personally do all the legwork yourself, shakey! believe me i know the pollrunner gets busy enough just tallying and assembling results, i'm just happy the thread is going in a direction of people offering up more info than just names, a lot of times it's hard to know where to start with figuring out how well you even know a producer's work.

2 more folks that whenever their names are listed in the credits makes me a lot more tempted to pick up the album :

alan moulder : for his work with swervedriver and curve alone !
flood : well, you takes your pick. weird electro stuff (cabaret voltaire virgin records era), to more polished stuff with depeche mode.

hope this doesn't turn into a general artists poll (everyone voting for the producers of their favorite albums/bands)

given the variety of acts most of the producers listed so far have worked with, I think the odds are against this. On the one hand anybody voting for George Martin is voting for the Beatles, but someone like Visconti or Plank or most of the hip hop guys is going to be voting essentially for a wider body of work than a single artist. At least, that's how I would hope people are approaching this - from the standpoint of overall careers/bodies of work, and not just "I really love those two records by that one band"

similarly I hope some credit is really given to innovators - Les Paul, Spector, Tom Dowd, Dr. Dre, etc - these guys changed how music is made.

for me it's gonna be so hard weighing different types of producers of different types of music that i'm tempted to just vote for my 20 favorite hip hop producers

danja deserves some serious consideration

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1bUsxK9U4rg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tgbnpofVVyk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Asy6Cpbtwfs

I'm not gonna fault anybody for doing a single genre-heavy ballott - it's gonna insure certain things are represented so that's good

xp

Willie Mitchell (Al Green) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willie_Mitchell_%28musician%29

danja is great for a newer guy but i'd feel silly putting him AND Timbaland on a ballot and i'm certainly not voting for him INSTEAD of Tim

as does swizzy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AoJ7MbK9TII
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ThlhSnRk21E&ob=av3e
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=90-SWwtpdZU&ob=av3e

yeah, fair point, but id still give him consideration for the low end of my ballot, anyone who creates half of the best pop album of the decade deserves some thought imo
xp

bangladesh

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O8Uhn-dU3Gg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mq-Ru6kQhE4&ob=av3e
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2kdCJRAiNk

for me it's gonna be so hard weighing different types of producers of different types of music that i'm tempted to just vote for my 20 favorite hip hop producers

― some dude, Thursday, September 29, 2011 10:11 PM (4 minutes ago) Bookmark

Yeah, I think I may just go all hip-hop to make sure it gets repped in the poll.

im gonna rep for bloodshy and avant here, because i know no one else will

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LOZuxwVk7TU&ob=av3n
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4FF6MpcsRw&ob=av3e

Willie Mitchell is U&K

I'm pretty sure I'll be voting for producers who've worked on records I don't really like, but which sound amazing. I'm thinking about committing 4 or 5 spots on my ballot in that direction.

U&K?

urgent & key

Anyone mention John Simon yet?

Alex Chilton for the first couple of Cramps records.

Jim Dickinson and John Fry for the Big Star stuff alone!

John Simon's a good one. No one ever recorded/produced the Band as well as he.

apart from Macero, which jazz producers really had any effect on the final product?

Van Gelder for sure

No one's mentioned George Shadow Morton? His Dolls and Shangri-Las work makes him HOF material.

Bill Laswell (Sonny Sharrock's Ask The Ages, the Laswell/Peter Brotzmann duo Low Life, others)

xp

Manfred Eicher?

xxp great call on Morton. hope I can squeeze him in the top 20

John Simon also did the first Leonard Cohen.

apart from Macero, which jazz producers really had any effect on the final product?

Tom Dowd, mentioned upthread a couple of times, worked at Atlantic Records on Coltrane, Coleman, Monk, Parker, et al. The documentary about him, Tom Dowd and the Language of Music, is really good.

Creed Taylor and Bob Thiele at Impulse.

Like I said upthread, producers who shape material vs. producers who shape recordings is an interesting question.

U&K?

― gospodin simmel, Thursday, September 29, 2011 6:28 PM (22 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

urgent & key

― Antonio Carlos Broheem (WmC), Thursday, September 29, 2011 6:29 PM (21 minutes ago) Bookmark

it always tickles me when someone drops ye olde ILM slang and newer folks get confused

Like I said upthread, producers who shape material vs. producers who shape recordings is an interesting question.

yeah but it's more of a historical one - in more recent genres like hip hop and recent r&b/pop and pretty much all electronic music this division has evaporated

No Glyn Johns mention yet? Andy Johns?

Roy Thomas Baker?

Lanois?

fucking Allen Toussaint (every New Orleans song since the 60's) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Toussaint

Glyn Johns was mentioned

Lanois... nobody actually likes that guy do they?

I didn't mention Tom Dowd because his pop work is just as great as his jazz work. his discography is the most ridiculous thing I've ever seen. he is God

U&K?

― gospodin simmel, Thursday, September 29, 2011 6:28 PM (22 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

urgent & key

― Antonio Carlos Broheem (WmC), Thursday, September 29, 2011 6:29 PM (21 minutes ago) Bookmark

it always tickles me when someone drops ye olde ILM slang and newer folks get confused

― some dude, Thursday, September 29, 2011 7:04 PM (7 minutes ago)

i've seen this like 100x in the past year and could never figure out what it meant

Nick Lowe!!!

Lillywhite!

Giorgio Moroder

Prince should probably be in this list right?

yeah but it's more of a historical one - in more recent genres like hip hop and recent r&b/pop and pretty much all electronic music this division has evaporated

I'd love to read more about the how and the why of that evaporation. What are some good books out there about record production? They can be memoirish or technical, I don't care. Emerick's book about recording the Beatles was really interesting, I thought.

Patrick Cowley
Patrick Adams

Frank Wilson, gospel-funk god: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Wilson_(musician)

Andy Johns?

Producer-as-auteur theory severely tested when the same dude does Marquee Moon and For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge. But yeah, give him some love for engineering Zep.

moroder - donna summer
cowley - sylvester
adams - tons of stuff, musique

xpost

I'd love to read more about the how and the why of that evaporation.

oh it's all technology + economics driven. why pay a bunch of engineers and studio musicians when you can pay one guy and one or two random guys to get everything done on synthesizers, sequencers, samplers and computers

I mean I'm sure danja or whoever calls up a guitarist if they happen to need them for a track, but dude can probably do the vast majority of his work by himself with maybe a couple of assistants.

Been sort of zooming through this thread, but have any classical producers been named? Are there any noteworthy classical producers?

^^ that's a question I wanted to ask too. are even producers regarded on the same level in the field of classical music as they are in pop?

Thomas Edison

Gotta have bubblegum gods Jerry Kasenetz and Jeff Katz (i.e., Kasenetz-Katz--didn't even know their first names till I looked them up): Ohio Express, 1910 Fruitgum Company, Crazy Elephant, Shadows of Knight, many others.

can't forget glam-bubblegum gods Chinn-Chapman

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4CqvQeUa38U
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tCDMgwdip6s&feature=related
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=El6iQ2_dvlc

BTW, for frame of reference, this is exactly how it's done:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-BRV0nhCZ6w

For me, John Leckie = The Posies' "Dear 23"

― Woolen Scjarfs (Phil D.), Thursday, September 29, 2011 4:55 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark

same here!

I don't know much about Roger Moutenot beyond production for Yo La Tengo and engineering on Naked City's Heretic, but those are enough to at least get a mention here.

does a man in a bedroom count? AFX?

interesting. If anything, this thread has made me listen to Sparks' Indiscreet. Great stuff.

Were there any great ground-zero punk producers? All those Wire and X-Ray Spex and Adverts records didn't produce themselves, yet if I ever did know the names of the people who produced them, I've forgotten.

Mitchell Froom, just for his ubiquity in the 90s and his good choice of artists
Hugh Padgham, for inventing the gated drum sound

No one's mentioned George Shadow Morton? His Dolls and Shangri-Las work makes him HOF material.

I did! But v briefly. Def near top of my list, the invention & drama with effects, space, big sounds, up-close voices in Shangri-las records has never stopped killing me.

lindsey buckingham!
terry manning
cowboy jack clement

al kooper

Chas Chandler's production on Hendrix' records is hella underrated.

Not that this is necessarily what the thread is about, but The Posies are a great example of what a producer brings to the table. Dear 23 (John Leckie) sounds *completely* different from Frosting On The Beater (Don Fleming), and both sound completely different from Amazing Disgrace (Nick Launay), and so on.

Every time I think of an old guy, WmC's already listed him. But I thought of one he missed: Norman Petty, first two Buddy Holly albums.

Thought I haven't liked any of his other production jobs, Nick Launay's work on Midnight Oil's 10, 9, 8... and Red Sails In The Sunset was ahead of its time. Red Sails in particular is one of the strangest-sounding records I've heard.

Quincy Jones
Creed Taylor
Hugo and Luigi
Nesuhi Ertegun
Diamond D

Al Schmitt: a number of key Jefferson Airplane LPs, side two of Neil's On the Beach, lots else.

I'll second Launay. And Wire was ... Mike Thorne?

Buckingham is one of those totally awesome producers known almost exclusively for producing himself and not others.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Cale_discography#Productions

To be honest, I don't know how good a producer Cale was, but he produced a bunch of classic albums.

^^ the conundrum involved in whether to vote for lots of producers here

arthur russell
walter gibbons
arthur baker

Has Bob Johnston been mentioned? Heck, I'd vote for him for the drums on "Tombstone Blues" alone.

Isaac Hayes (with and without David Porter)
Tom Moulton
John Morales
Jellybean Benitez
Larry Levan

Stephen Hague, for the Pet Shop Boys, New Order, and lots of British stuff I don't know or don't care about (but lots of other people do).

Can't believe nobody's mentioned Stock/Aitken/Waterman yet.

The big pool of names is fun to compile, but actually whittling them down to 20 is going to be murder.

Alan Parsons! Alan frickin' Parsons!

I'm positive I'll just end up voting for people as surrogates for my favourite artists--i.e., David Briggs will be my #1 because Neil's my #1 artist. I have a hard time detaching the producer from the work. This almost calls for some kind of auteur theory whereby you try to figure out who made the best records from the most mediocre material.

I've also got a soft spot for Clive Langer and Alan Winstanley, so I want to make sure they get a mention.

Tom Scholz

Oh wow, Scholz...one of those who may make my ballot, even though I loathe the material. But his discography is a little thin.

All those Wire and X-Ray Spex and Adverts records didn't produce themselves, yet if I ever did know the names of the people who produced them, I've forgotten.

first Adverts album = John Leckie

first three wire albums: mike thorne

John Leckie's crowning achievement:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8ja0bPdB_U&feature=related

And I'm complimenting him by considering it a song.

A bit of vintage Zappa from back in the day of dozens of tracks piled up with an eight-track mixing board, and a nice mix of organic instrumentation and musique concrète:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZKFs9e2zMqI

graham sutton - bark psychosis etc

alec empire

Kevin 'She'kspeare' Briggs (and Kandi?) - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kevin_%22She%27kspere%22_Briggs

Re: classical music, I had named John Culshaw (producer of Decca's landmark Ring cycle) and Kenneth Wilkinson (great engineer of the 60s orchestral Decca sound and elsewhere).

In classical music it will often be the engineer who is viewed the way the 'producer' is in rock. Same with film score recordings.

I love Hysteria for its complete and utter sound overdrive. It's like taking a bath in soft electricity

Love this description, even though I really dislike Hysteria's sound, myself.

Dave Jerden had a pretty interesting run in the 80s

If the same guy produced the first three Wire albums, he's on my list for sure. Have I ever given a moment's thought to, or even taken notice of, the production on those albums before? No.

tony platt

If the same guy produced the first three Wire albums, he's on my list for sure. Have I ever given a moment's thought to, or even taken notice of, the production on those albums before? No.

if you're just voting for your favorite artists, it seems more like you have kind of a low opinion of what producers actually do...?

I mean, Briggs for example is great, and he did more than just make great-sounding Neil Young records!

Briggs CV includes:

1970 Spirit - Twelve Dreams of Dr. Sardonicus
1992 Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Henry's Dream
1995 Royal Trux - Thank You

all of which are amazingly well-done and were produced in interesting ways

Also Alice Cooper's Easy Action

I know that album has it's fans, but I'm not really one of them

Jimmy Page really needs to be mentioned

Chips Moman

Gotta say I'm not entirely sure what most producers bring to the table except for a bit of technical competence and a lot of organisation, but here are a few where I just really love the general sound:

Kate Bush (self-produced)
Scott Litt (early 90s REM)
Jimmy Miller (Exile on Main Street)
Mark Ronson (Back to Black)
Dallas Austin (CrazySexyCool, also Destiny's Child?)
Martin Hannett (Unknown Pleasures)

recording music is so fundamentally different from performing live, producers bring a LOT to the table

It's not that I have a low opinion of producers, it's just that most of the time I don't have a proper appreciation for what they do. Some extreme examples, like Spector, yeah, I can immediately recognize their contribution. And at the other extreme, something like the Heartbreakers' L.A.M.F., I can also recognize non-production. But with the great wide middle ground, either my ear isn't good enough, or all the other things that matter to me when it comes to music are what dominate.

Yeah, if I'd made a record myself I'd understand better, but as it is I'm looking for crispness, new sounds, imaginative arrangements and good stories, and chalking that up to Eno or whoever. A few more names that occur:

Arthur Baker (Planet Rock, etc)
Frankie Knuckles (house)
Andy Johns (Marquee Moon)

The story Television gives is that Andy Johns would show up with a couple of bottles of wine, he'd proceed to drink himself into a stupor, and then after he passed out they produced themselves.

Haha! Well he also did something or other on both Exile On Main Street and Led Zep IV, so I'll overlook that nonsense.

it's undeniable we're talking about a range of roles here, some guys are super-technicians, others are more "spiritual guides" or whatever. there's a few who have been mentioned who have amazing track records, like John Cale, where their production work is so disparate I have no idea what they actually did. and of course there's people who have readily identifiable sounds, where it's clear they like to record drums a certain way (Friddman springs to mind, Hannett too) or stick to specific reverb units or what have you.

btw lol that Bill Laswell got namedropped before Rick Rubin

Chris Thomas (mixing and stuff on The Beatles and Dark Side of the Moon, produced Roxy Music and the Sex Pistols. Yet I first notice him for his work with Razorlight)

Daniel Lanois!

Oh, wait, "skipping 136 messages"...

Lanois was mentioned but I asked if anyone actually liked him and no one answered :)

others are more "spiritual guides" or whatever

In some ways, this is the end of production that most interests me. I think it would have applied to David Briggs with Neil, and also--even though he obviously had as much to do with the sound end of it as anyone ever--George Martin. I always see Martin as this dignified, calming influence for the Beatles in the midst of personal and cultural chaos.

from what I've heard, Rick Rubin has basically taken the "producer-as-spiritual guide" schtick to a whole other level

Terry Brown
John Leckie
Nigel Godrich
George Martin
Konrad Plank
Scott Litt
Martin Rushent
Chris Shaw
Flood
Roy Thomas-Baker

I was wondering when (if) someone was gonna mention Terry Brown!

and Glyn and Andy Johns - because of the sheer amount of classic records these two worked on.

I was wondering when (if) someone was gonna mention Terry Brown!

All of those Rush records that he did are impeccably produced, IMHO... by the time he finished working with Rush he'd absolutely nailed their sound perfectly. Great drum sound, and not an ounce of clutter.

I mentioned Glyn at least twice. There, I just mentioned him a third time. He should really get props for being the only person who knew how to record the Who.

xp Yeah, as busy as Hemispheres is, it still sounds spacious.

Apparently Glyn Johns and Jimmy Page fell out because Glyn wanted a production credit on one of the early Zep albums that he engineered... or so I heard anyway!

madlib

Oh shit, I have to mention Bob Ezrin too... his later work might be questionable, but I can't argue with his production on the Cooper albums and while The Wall isn't my favourite Floyd album, it SOUNDS great.

also Lou Reed's "Berlin" altho I think the things I don't like about that record are totally Ezrin's fault. otoh, he made his kids cry in the studio and put it on a song, gotta commend the commitment level there lol

Lanois was mentioned but I asked if anyone actually liked him and no one answered :)

That's because i missed the question. I don't like him. I love him.

A quick mention for Eddy Offord and Eddie Kramer too, and I think that's my lot :)

I think Ezrin used kids' voices on every one of his '70s productions!

im gonna rep for bloodshy and avant here, because i know no one else will

― prego, Thursday, September 29, 2011 6:22 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

didnt know they did 2011

From Sky Ferreira's As If!
    "Haters Anonymous"
    "108"

2 of my fav songs this yr

Jim O'Rourke
Dan Snaith
Kieran Hebdon
Phil & Paul Hartnoll
Graham Sutton
Mark Hollis
Tim Friese-Green (Phill Brown engineered & these two "produced" iirc)
Scott Walker
Jason Pierce

Is Kate Bush the only woman mentioned?

Andrew Weatherall.

Adrian Sherwood
King Tubby
Lee Scratch Perry
Mario Caldato Junior

Is Kate Bush the only woman mentioned?

― Sick Mouthy (Scik Mouthy), Friday, September 30, 2011 9:31 PM (10 minutes ago)

I mentioned Sylvia Moy (Motown, 1960s) upthread.

Also: Betty Cantor (Grateful Dead)

Most sexist field of work in music?

Yeah, really. I bet dudes are even the ones bringing the coffee and tea in this situation.

How Many Female Record Producers Can We Name?

Missy Elliot yo

someone mentioned Joan Jett on that thread, that's another good one (first Germs LP!)

Tina Weymouth produces, but I only know her for that disastrous Happy Mondays LP

ok so i just searched this thread and see no GARY KATZ

Here's where I really start to lose sight of who should be included in this poll: Rod Stewart produced or co-produced his first four LPs, to me one of the greatest runs ever. (He was the sole producer on Every Picture Tells a Story.)

Sounds like he deserves to be on your ballot then. Has he produced anyone else or any records other than those four?

Just a lot of babies from younger women, I think.

Rod also did the first two Faces albums. It was a group credit though.

Oh good Lord will, thanks for mentioning Gary Katz. Am kicking myself for not instantly putting him into this list.

(Bam!) (Ow!) (Bam!) (Ow!) (Bam!) (Ow!) (Bam!) (Ow!)

Also, Ed Stasium. His work on the first two Living Colour albums somehow manages to foreground every instrument. Ramones, too.

John McEntire

Bob Dylan did a good job with the last couple of Dylan records. But as noted upthread, there are a lot of artists really good at producing themselves, like Brian Wilson.

Paul Savage for making my favourite live band sound beautiful on record. Also for much of Arab Strap's best work - esp. Philophobia.

at this point in my life, i am going with Launay.

feel like jon brion at least deserves a mention

Dennis Bovell
Coxsone Dodd
Bruce Botnick

probably goes without saying that I'll be voting for Grant Showbiz and Chris Knox...

ballots that don't include Stock-Aitken-Waterman and Max Martin should not be counted

I dunno, does one mark SAW up for importance, or down for being almost uniformly terrible?

Gary Usher
Jimmy Bowen
Smokey Robinson
Bertrand Burgalat
Pete Wingfield

...and Kurtis Mantronik, Aldo Marin, Tony Moran (Latin Rascals) :P

btw Shakey - the ballots are to be 20 names long? 'cause you listed scoring up to #30 and that confuses me a bit

― V79, Thursday, September 29, 2011 10:24 PM (4 days ago) Bookmark

was this answered?

d'oh my bad. Yeah it should be 20 (I c+p'd from the Stevie Wonder thread, which allowed up to 30)

― unorthodox economic revenge (Shakey Mo Collier), Thursday, September 29, 2011 3:25 PM (4 days ago)

sorry, thanks

my idea was to vote for favorite "sounds". Leiber and Stoller (for example) produced some of my favorite music ever, but I'm not sure I can identify them with a particular sound.

In thinking about some favorite records, I realized that Ray Davies produced the vast majority of the Kinks' records (Something Else and everything after). But I don't think I want to nominate him because they're all, without exception, indifferently produced.

Ray Davies lone non-Kinks production is for the Turtles' "Turtle Soup" and it is awesome. I love that stuff but yeah I wouldn't rank it for the production really.

The only Kinks record I'd seriously rep for in terms of its sound is Give The People What They Want; problem is, it's one of their worst records.

No Dan Lissvik mentions yet?

no ballots yet

xp

I should probably put my ballot together before I see anybody else's right...?

yeah

I just sent you one so don't look!

My ballot will probably be last-day -- I want as a big a pool of names to ponder as possible.

Shakey, did you say you were maintaining a list of everybody who gets mentioned/nominated?

I was but I gave up, this thread will have to do.

no one's mentioned Organized Noise yet :(

okay my ballot is together

um where's the google docs spreadsheet template

I sort of feel like I want to disqualify self-producers if they did not do an equal amount of production for others. Which throws out a lot of my favorite productions (Gaucho, Tusk, H20, etc etc etc) but I feel like if I allow myself self-producers the list just becomes unmanageable.

Was just coming here to say Organized Noise.

Rick rubin,elvis costelo,robert fripp,Bob Weston

Jim O'Rourk,J.G Thirlwell

2 ballots so far (plus mine), come on guys

Oh damn, the 7th? Okay, I'll start getting mine together.

Eric is holding Stevie balloting open a while longer, so he may not be finished with the reveal this week. Dunno if that affects whether you might want to leave this poll open longer. I'll definitely be able to get mine done by Friday though.

eh we'll see. I can always wait to roll out the results if Eric needs some time for Stevie.

wait, when does the stevie poll end? i might be able to listen to jungle fevereverything for the first time before it closes, instead of just rushing to listening to the 80s and 90s in the next two hours.

okay, i sent mine

John Cale, people!

John, cale people!

I'll accept ranked ballots of up to 20 entries, scoring will go as follows:

01:40, 02:36, 03:33, 04:30, 05:27, 06:25, 07:24, 08:23, 09:22, 10:21
11:20, 12:19, 13:18, 14:17, 15:16, 16:15, 17:14, 18:13, 19:12, 20:11
21:10, 22:09, 23:08, 24:07, 25:06, 26:05, 27:04, 28:03, 29:02, 30:01

apologies for dumbass question, but do i sub 20, or 30 entries ?

20

is there some way to edit the OP so I can correct that mistake...?

got it

thanking you!

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=ZQBPGXI6

This is the .xls template that finefinemusic made up -- it's not a Google Doc, but I guess you could use Google Docs to open the file...? I never tried that with Zep.

yeah I found that and am all setup, let the votes roll in...

Now we'll just get posts asking what mark e was on about.

xpost Max Martin ... does he count as a producer? He's a songwriter, too, which is more than just a producer. Not sure where he gets slotted.

i had him on my ballot

yeah Max Martin is definitely a producer. surely nobody else has been disqualified for also being a songwriter.

nobody's even suggested it!

Just noting that's he's another odd case, the writer/producer. That is, he is not brought in as a producer of someone's songs. He sells songs he has by and large written and produced already. Which does not make him unique, no, but he's certainly not a guy hired for his production abilities alone. He delivers the whole package.

a couple more additions to the never ending list :

thomas dolby : his own material + prefab sprout/joni mitchell etc
stuart price : madonna + own material
vic maile : http://www.discogs.com/artist/Vic+Maile#t=Credits_All&q=&p=1

I want Mitchell Froom and Brad Jones in there. Both among my fave producers of the past 20-25 years.

I've just voted. I'd've included Mitchell Froom for Woodface but the rest is kind of meh so no luck, Mitch.

6 ballots so far

Froom did a great job on "Kiko."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r7Cf0GK2xKU

^^^Mitchell's finest moment

film is such a bizarre cultural artifact. and written by Jerry Stahl!

Tim Friese-Green seconded
Jimmy Page seconded
Lindsey Buckingham seconded
Manfred Eicher seconded
+
Teo Macero
Raymond Scott
T-Bone Burnett

no mention of LARGE PROFESSOR in this thread.

or MAD PROFESSOR for that matter.

Blurring the producer/artist line, there's always George Clinton. But I guess a lot of the names above do that.

So I'll say it again: George Clinton.

Big '90s rock dudes: Butch Vig, Michael Beinhorn

Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis

Jack Nitzsche

yeah - Nitzsche!

more of an orchestrator than a producer (I mean I know he did a few albums but it's not a ton)

imho

That one was more of just a name to throw out there, though in another universe he might have been listed as a coproducer on some of the Phil Spector records he did. I'm not actually that familiar with his other work, though I love what he did on Neil Young/Buffalo Springfield's "Expecting to Fly."

don't get me wrong, I think he's great. altho tbh prior to the reissue, I would have said that he ruined the first s/t Neil Young album

Tempted to compile all the names on this thread into an alphabetical list and sell it for a dollar a pop.

Basic Channel

officially extending the balloting deadline until Eric is done with the Stevie Wonder poll results (ie, the middle of next week)

whew...i was gonna be hard pressed to work out a list of 20 w/o doing some personal research. a few extra days are welcome.

Yeah, this gives me the weekend to do a better job of it.

I only have 7 ballots at the moment. get 'em in folks

Who was/were the credited producer/producers on the Stax/Volt records, prior to Tom Dowd's "involvement" ?

Chips Moman, Hayes/Porter, probably some others

Who's responsible for Oasis' albums?

Owen Morris

xp Thanks, already have Hayes/Porter on my ballot, wasn't sure about earlier stuff. I'd forgotten Moman was involved in Stax; I always associated him with American.

Hey folks, don't forget Arif Mardin and Jerry Wexler, ridiculously great CVs 'Dusty in Memphis, Aretha Franklin, Dr John, King Curtis, Scritti Politti etc

Chuck Rainey would disagree:

"Jerry Wexler and Ahmet Ertegun were great businessmen," Rainey maintains. "That company has taken a lot of credit for things that they have nothing at all to do with." Rainey dismisses even Tom Dowd, the pioneering engineer who pushed away office furniture to record Ray Charles and Big Joe Turner in the '50s, before Atlantic had its own studio, and later engineered Layla. Rainey credits Dowd's assistant: "Gene Paul, man, was the guy. All Tommy Dowd did was maybe remix or bring something up. I thought he was a bullshit artist, always talking ethereal shit like he was God's gift to musicians. By the time Tommy Dowd sat down at the board, Gene Paul had already gotten the bass and drum sounds.

"How do you write eight to the bar, and a shuffle at the same time, like 'Spanish Harlem?'" asks Rainey. "Richard Tee, who played Fender Rhodes, would be asked to overdub two or three different parts on top of the track. Then Arif would turn around and orchestrate it for the orchestra, but it was Richard Tee, who never got credit for orchestrations .

Some more possible candidates for my ballot:

Richard X
Michael B. Tretow
Greg Kurstin
Geoff Barrow

can i post a late ballot? forgot about this today.

ah ignore that, phew.

9 ballots so far, clear frontrunner established

im gonna do this tommorow. dunno about premo v. rza for #1 tho

votey votey vote vote

clear frontrunner established

oooohhh !
bet i didn't vote for him/her ..

lol "him/her"

I probably shouldn't say...

some dude : yeah i know .. but hey.

i realise this means little to others, but i have seen so many of these poll threads over the years, but this is the 1st time i've jumped in.

shit, so voting isn't closed yet? how much time have we still got left? I was offline since Monday, thought voting will have been long gone by today and didn't prepare a ballot yet.

I'm going to keep voting open until the Stevie Wonder poll is finished, which is apparently the middle of next week (ie Wednesday)

Thanks! I need more time....

Two I'd like add that haven't been mentioned.... neither particularly well known, but I love their work.

Elliot Mazer - for Neil Young of course (when David Briggs wasn't in the producer's chair for the album), but also helped coax some spine-tingling sounds from Janis Joplin/Big Brother, Area Code 615, Jake Holmes, Linda Ronstadt, and The Band.

Erik Jacobsen - produced Tim Hardin and the Lovin' Spoonful in the late 1960s, and much more recently some wonderfully atmospheric albums by Chris Isaak, actually everything he did for the first 15 years of his career, like this track:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qOfNkKpoiVs

haha jesus shakey stop being all peevish about the stevie poll, you should've just allowed for a longer cushion time to begin with

Argh damn damn damn - I forgot Rich Harrison (Amerie, Crazy In Love). What a sound! I guess he's not going to show if he only gets mentioned now, but still I should've included him.

Andy Wallace to thread.

Mostly an engineer/mixer, but also occasionally a great producer (i.e. Jeff Buckley's Grace)

Lofi-bedroom indie guys I'm sure most people hate:
Phil Elverum/Phil Elvrum
Richard Gottehrer

Also:
Trent Reznor

man i might actually vote for reznor

OK if I get a ballot in, it's going to include Tricky, the Bristol version.

OK, here's a googledoc of all the names in this thread, unless I missed a few. Not going to C&P the whole thing into this thread.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1p4NGd9xLIo6fm2C2m72gZLPStQt8DNQnnG9NbBlJ864/edit?hl=en_US

I think the moral of this story ^^^ is to be named Phil. Also, "that guy from Portishead" == Geoff Barrow.

OK, time to sit down with my long-list and make a ballot.

Don't forget Rich Harrison.

I want to campaign for Gary Kellgren, cofounder of and engineer at The Record Plant (NYC, LA, Sausalito) from 1967-1977. He'd be way up on my list for the trio of Electric Ladyland, We're Only In It for the Money and Lumpy Gravy alone, but that wasn't everything -- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary_Kellgren#Discography

sent

Bump!

You don't have anything better to do, so vote!

only 13 ballots so far c'mon folks

voted! and now immediately regret not putting psycho les #1

tbh I have been surprised at some of the uniformity in voting so far

Just checking...did you receive my ballot? (sent a few days ago)

doesn't look like it...? I've replied to everyone who's sent one so far, and I just went back through my inbox and didn't see it. :(

ah, then you haven't gotten mine yet either!

You may have a spam filter full of ballots.

sent one too a few days ago - guessing you didn't get it.

I'm whittling down my list today, hope to send in my ballot tonite.

I'm trying hard to vote for really great producers without letting how much I like the music of the artists they produce sway me.

p certain that any votes without psycho les on them get marked as spam

wait WmC you're William Crump right? I sent you a msg that I got yrs

Tarfumes I don't think I've received

Yeah, I got the confirmation for the 2nd try, not the 1st. (both sent to the same address)

Just sent again (hope it's not too late!)

OK, just about ready to submit my ballot. It will have two producers not yet mentioned:

Nick Venet - produced Fred Neil, early records by Glen Campbell, first Walker Brothers album, first two Beach Boys albums, Jim Croce, Lothar and the Hand People (insanely ahead of its time production-wise), Iain Matthews.

Rick Jarrard - mainly on the strength of late-'60s Harry Nilsson and Jefferson Airplane

Also Andy Wallace, who I already mentioned as a producer (Jeff Buckley) but really made his impact in mixing and engineering (Nirvana's Nevermind to name one). Look at this CV!

King Tubby all the way. One of the titans of 20th Century music.

Ballot sent.

So many I was sure would make the cut had to be axed as I tried to whittle down my list to 20 favorites. No Rick Rubin, Froom, Eno, Morodor, Prince, Babyface, or Lillywhite. Despite my recent comment, Nick Venet had to go. Geoff Emerick and Ken Townsend (inventor of automatic double tracking) are major Beatles-related figures, but I decided to let George Martin carry the Fabs torch since he was the most crucially important (not to mention has an impressive resume even if you leave out the Beatles). I have pathetically little representation of hip-hop producers, or even rock producers of the last two decades. But ultimately I had to go with those who made amazing-sounding recordings back when the available technology made it difficult, and whose work so hugely influenced and schooled those who followed, and whose records I never tire of hearing.

okay two more ballots received this morning, still pretty low turnout here. come on guys...

Mine will be sent before the end of the day.

17 ballots so far

sitewide poll fatigue?

I suspect this poll would have been more popular if was about the work of one producer instead of all of them.

Sent.

frontrunner is so far ahead at this point it's not even funny

fuck, figured this would be diverse

Sent. Mostly hip-hop to mix it up a bit.

fuck, figured this would be diverse

the results so far are pretty diverse tbh, but there are a few people who are appearing on pretty much every ballot, and that's putting them way ahead overall

pffft fucking albini

Going back and forth on Spector, tbh. Vote honestly or vote strategically?

whensabouts is balloting closed? Looking to open up my Pulp poll soon..

xpost - Vote honestly!

officially extending the balloting deadline until Eric is done with the Stevie Wonder poll results (ie, the middle of next week)

― unorthodox economic revenge (Shakey Mo Collier), Thursday, October 6, 2011 10:31 AM (5 days ago)

Shakey, let me know if you want me to put a definite closing time in the thread title.

Ah, thank you - I did scroll through but missed that :)

I'd like to get as many ballots as possible so at this point I'm thinking of leaving balloting open until midnight on Friday

Phil Spector to win this in a canter.

I'm not convinced.

No problem, Shakey Mo - I just didn't want people to be anxiously awaiting my poll & me oblivious as to this one's end.

Biggest omission from the list, by fucking far: James Brown. ILX, how could you forget? Omit his self productions and you still have one of the most broadly influential oeuvres of anybody on here.

Another suggested write-in candidate: Curtis Mayfield. Though I didn't vote for him, I'd like to see him place.

I'm pretty sure #1 will be Moroder, with The Bomb Squad and RZA as #2 and #3. No way Spector is gonna win, the sort of people who are most likely to vote in a producer poll are electronic/rap/dance music fans, not popists.

FFM: Overlapping is cool, though -- the balloting periods will always be longer than the results take to reveal. Shakey started Producers voting when GBV results finished, etc.

Another suggested write-in candidate: Curtis Mayfield. Though I didn't vote for him, I'd like to see him place.

I thought of including him, but in fairness sake I tried to judge artist-producers based on the stuff they produced for other artists, i.e. stuff where they acted only as a producer. And Mayfield simply isn't in the top drawer when it comes to that, despite hsving had his own label and all. Outside his own work I think only produced one really good album (the Baby Huey one)...?

slow/low turnout made me think of this
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M-FXkj-r9Mc&feature=related

Outside his own work I think only produced one really good album (the Baby Huey one)...?

he did this, from the sdtk album by the Staple Singers, which is fucking killer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=etITOxv9x4w

the sort of people who are most likely to vote in a producer poll are electronic/rap/dance music fans, not popists.

was hoping this would be at least partly true, but so far there have not been a ton of ballots from the ILM dance massive or the goon cru tbh

feel free to go hassle them

I'm not a big dance or hip-hop fan, but one thing I like about those genres is that their artists and listeners understand the importance of production on a record's sound, and often hightlight their names on their records, often including their name in the song in the titles even ("xxxxx mix" or "featuring xxxxx"), far more than in rock.

Speaking of dance production I totally forgot to add Sasu Ripatti (Vladislav Delay, Luomo, Uusitalo) to my ballot.

Electronic music is fairly unrepresented so far.

Matthew Herbert
Helge Sten (Deathprod)
Carl Craig
Stephan Bodzin
Ricardo Villalobos
Troy Pierce

guys I'm not even gonna bother with the results unless we get over 20 ballots

How many do you have now?

19, not counting my own

A lot of ties still?

no ties. a couple entries separated by a single point tho

I'm sure we'll have a dozen "I had no idea this was going on!"'s after it's too late. Nobody liked my idea of putting up reminders of ongoing votes as a Site Admin Message when I mentioned it a year or so ago.

ballot from Armand Ratfucker puts us over the 20 hump

i didnt know when voting ended so you're damn lucky i clicked on the thread to check.

hey WmC can you change the thread title to include poll deadline for midnight Friday...?

got it

gracias!

bump

finally got some free time to compile my ballot. think I'm just gonna prop up my favourite names, including at least one Polish producer (who I will introduce in this thread, just for a bit of recognition)

just gonna keep bumpin this til we hit 30 ballots

bump

bump

voted

It works!

lol

bump duplicate message

26 ballots so far, keep 'em coming!

I'm sure we'll have a dozen "I had no idea this was going on!"'s after it's too late. Nobody liked my idea of putting up reminders of ongoing votes as a Site Admin Message when I mentioned it a year or so ago.

a propos the lack of dance/electronic producers: we haven't mentioned neither Todd Edwards, nor Max Tundra

maybe cuz max tundra is shite?

no u

just vote already

just sent you mine - good god that was difficult...
a Top 50 might make you feel like you'd covered enough people, but as for ranking them - talk about apples n oranges!

Wait, you could vote for 50 producers?! I though Shakey's opening post said 20.

I think he means 50 rankings in the reveal, not on your ballot.

sorry for confusion - I meant if you were allowed to rank/vote-for 50 (instead of 20), you might feel like you'd included enough producers/engineers. culling was extremely difficult.

buuuuuuump.

28 ballots so far

more than Blur, but less than the Pet Shop Boys

FREE THE RESULTS!
FREE THE RESULTS!
FREE THE RESULTS!

NO POLL RESULTS FOR OIL! BRING OUR ENGINEERS HOME!

plan is to start rolling out results on Monday - unless I get a whole bunch more ballots will probably just do a top 50, altho there are currently a bunch of ties in the lower ranks

votey vote votar vote

more than 28 posters on this thread iirc

Yeah vote, and do it now. Time runneth on.

People who claimed to be excited about this poll on the "coordinating" thread:

me
some dude
rogermexico
Ismael
gospodin simmel
rustic italian flatbread

Hope we all voted!

ooh namin and shamin

gospodin and ismael have voted fwiw

I'll fill out rogermexico's and flatbread's ballots, no prob

xxxp

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HksJCN5YPSc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QaTbErVDQ40

1 more ballot received (thx milton)

i'll be sending one within the next 10 minutes so hold on.

done

11 minutes! you liar

ha i dunno but i should maybe clarify that "maw" = masters at work.

I will vote sometime tomorrow, if voting is still open then?

11 minutes! you liar

you're one to talk...

Neil voting's open til tomorrow at midnight

I have the day off tomorrow, so expect a vote & thanks!

you're one to talk...

― unorthodox economic revenge (Shakey Mo Collier), Thursday, October 13, 2011 7:11 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark

?

i voted btw -- sorry if posting on the thread before voting makes me a 'liar' but i don't believe in promising "i'm working on it! it's coming soon!" before sitting down and just doing it when i have the time

finally sent my ballot! took me ridiculously long to compile and in the end I kinda rushed it, so sorry for the delay.

included were two Polish names that probably will sound unfamiliar to most, so a little introduction for them:
Noon - trip-hop influenced hip-hop producer (some ppl like to call him "the Polish DJ Shadow" which is kind of a stupid tag imho) who at first cooperated with handful of high-profile names from the scene:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZEoFwJogMM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tqh_w9Isyvw

then went instrumental (this period reminds me a bit of Boards of Canada):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hPjXYodZIkE&feature=related
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQR-jnL6tEA

Maciej Cieślak - influential person on the Polish independent scene, leader of Ścianka and, of course, a popular producer. takes pride using solely analogue equipment, so all his recordings sound "warm, yet crispy" (and other audiophile bullshit) but first and foremost - sound very nice.
few choice cuts:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Y18u7isD5I&feature=related
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DWix8p0NkoI&feature=related
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QgPZkE6a3uQ (screw shitty youtube quality)
also you may check latest Ścianka single: http://soundcloud.com/creativemusicagency/cianka-satellites

sorry for a wall of youtubes, folks :/

Sending my ballot posthaste Shakey Mo!

(Couldn't decide whether to nominate Ted Templeman (producer of some of my favourite SOUNDING records of all time - Van Halen, Montrose, Captain Beefheart, Van Morrison, Doobie Brothers, Little Feat - or his usual engineer (Donn Landee); so as a result, neither of 'em got a mention & will have to settle for this honourable mention.)

oh man i wish i voted for Templeman now

33 votes (in your face, Pet Shop Boys!)

get yr ballots in if you haven't voted yet, today is the last day

I voted for Templeman, but forgot Moroder. oof.

don't think I have ballots from rustic or rogermexico yet

voted!

pls to confirm receipt

Ballot sent - fairly easy to pick 20 favourites but actually ranking them was very tricky.

keep 'em comin

I'll try to do one this afternoon. Has anybody lobbied for Mike Chapman? Jammed Parallel Lines last week and was reminded of how nice the production is.

33 votes (in your face, Pet Shop Boys!)

http://i.thisislondon.co.uk/i/pix/2009/03/pet-shop-boys-415x263.jpg

They do not look very happy.

I wonder if anyone will vote for the Boys, they may have the last laugh.

Has anybody lobbied for Mike Chapman?

I don't think I did, but I considered him for Rapture. That 'bell' sound is one of my favourite production tricks (see also Ain't No Mountain High Enough, Tears Dry On Their Own). What is it? A really loud xylophone?

there was some considerable praise upthread for Chinn-Chapman from yrs truly

vote vote vote

voting... almost ... closed

last chance to affect the results kids

messed up and sent an earlier draft of my poll, only really one hideous miss, guess it's too late to sub them in?

Sent a bashed out ballot just now.

or something e-mail me about what the change is

done, shakey, nice one.

hope Allen Touissant places high - I just found out dude is coming to chat with ethnomusicology students at the University of Alberta, where I just completed my MA. I'm home in the States now but planning to participate via Skype, and I'm fucking psyched.

time is a runnin out kids

I can submit a second ballot if you'd like.

LET'S DO THIS

woo hoo !

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/31/arts/music/phil-ramone-record-producer-and-winner-of-14-grammys-dies-at-79.html

Sure, he ushered in/pioneered the era of the 70s studio sound, which was about as resonant and dynamic as wet shag carpeting. But he was also the engineer on Olé Coltrane.

R.I.P.