57-458: David William Edmunds (born 15 April 1944) is a Welsh retired singer, songwriter, guitarist and record producer . Although he is mainly associated with pub rock and new wave , having many hits in the 1970s and early 1980s, his natural leaning has always been towards 1950s-style rock and roll and rockabilly . Edmunds was born in Cardiff , Wales . As a ten-year-old, he first played in 1954 with
114-481: A Grammy nomination, the Recording Academy defines a producer: The person who has overall creative and technical control of the entire recording project, and the individual recording sessions that are part of that project. He or she is present in the recording studio or at the location recording and works directly with the artist and engineer. The producer makes creative and aesthetic decisions that realize both
171-780: A Silver Certification from the British Phonographic Industry on 20 March 1980 (for over 60,000 copies sold in the UK). The single "Girls Talk" also received a Silver Certificate from the BPI. Edmunds, with Rockpile, performed in a music video for "Girls Talk", directed by Martin Pitts and produced by Derek Burbidge and Helen Pollack. For the video, the band set up on the roof of the Warner Brothers Records building in Midtown Manhattan in
228-639: A band called the Edmunds Bros Duo with his older brother Geoff (born 5 December 1939, Cardiff); this was a piano duo. Then the brothers were in the Stompers, later called the Heartbeats, formed around 1957 with Geoff Edmunds and Allan Goldsworty on rhythm guitars, Dave on lead guitar, Denny Driscoll on lead vocals, Johnny Stark on drums, and Tom Edwards on bass. Then Dave and Geoff were in the 99ers along with scientist and writer Brian J. Ford . After that Dave Edmunds
285-423: A broad project, the creation of a popular music recording may be split across three specialists: the executive producer , who oversees business partnerships and financing; the vocal producer or vocal arranger, who aids vocal performance via expert critique and coaching of vocal technique, and the record producer or music producer, who, often called simply the producer, directs the overall creative process of recording
342-471: A cylinder. By the 1930s, a gramophone etched it laterally across a disc. Constrained in tonal range, whether bass or treble, and in dynamic range , records made a grand, concert piano sound like a small, upright piano, and maximal duration was four and a half minutes. Selections and performance were often altered accordingly, and playing this disc—the wax master—destroyed it. The finality often caused anxiety that restrained performance to prevent error. In
399-577: A five-song set, including "I Hear You Knocking," "I Knew the Bride" and "Sabre Dance" with the Holland Big Band at the Royal Albert Hall on 27 November 2009. He returned and performed "Sabre Dance" on Jools' Annual Hootenanny on the 2009/10 edition. An album release on 19 November 2013 called ...Again , featured recordings from the 1990s, plus four new tracks, Edmunds' first for almost 20 years, with
456-407: A leading A&R man of the 1950s. During the decade, A&R executives increasingly directed songs' sonic signatures, although many still simply teamed singers with musicians, while yet others exercised virtually no creative influence. The term record producer in its current meaning—the creative director of song production—appearing in a 1953 issue of Billboard magazine, became widespread in
513-566: A more blues-rock sound, reuniting with Congo Jones and bassist John Williams and adding second guitarist Mickey Gee to form the short-lived Human Beans, a band that played mostly in London and on the UK university circuit. In 1967, the band recorded a cover of "Morning Dew" on the British Columbia label that failed to have any chart impact. After just eighteen months, the core of Human Beans formed
570-516: A musical element while playing a previously recorded record, Les Paul developed a recording technique called "sound on sound". By this, the final recording could be built piece by piece and tailored, effecting an editing process. In one case, Paul produced a song via 500 recorded discs. But, besides the tedium of this process, it serially degraded the sound quality of previously recorded elements, rerecorded as ambient sound. Yet in 1948, Paul adopted tape recording, enabling true multitrack recording by
627-413: A new band called Love Sculpture that again reinstated Edmunds, Jones and Williams as a trio. Love Sculpture released their debut single "River to Another Day" in 1968. Their second single was a quasi-novelty Top 5 , a reworking of Khachaturian 's classical piece " Sabre Dance " as a speed-crazed rock number, inspired by Keith Emerson 's classical rearrangements. "Sabre Dance" became a hit after garnering
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#1732858573438684-542: A new technique, " overdubbing ". To enable overdubbing, Paul revised the tape recorder itself by adding a second playback head, and terming it the preview head . Joining the preexisting recording head, erase head, and playback head, the preview head allows the artist to hear the extant recording over headphones playing it in synchrony, "in sync", with the present performance being recorded alone on an isolated track. This isolation of multiple tracks enables countless mixing possibilities. Producers began recording initially only
741-525: A set of recordings in Los Angeles. Later, folklorist Archie Green called this perhaps the earliest printed use of A&R man . Actually, it says neither "A&R man" nor even "A&R", an initialism perhaps coined by Billboard magazine in 1946, and entering wide use in the late 1940s. In the 1920s and 1930s, A&R executives, like Ben Selvin at Columbia Records , Nathaniel Shilkret at Victor Records, and Bob Haring at Brunswick Records became
798-448: A woman the reins of an immense, creative project like making a record." Ultimately, the reasons are multiple and not fully clear, although prominently proposed factors include types of sexism and scarcity of female role models in the profession. Women producers known for producing records not their own include Sonia Pottinger, Sylvia Robinson and Carla Olson. In January 2018, a research team led by Stacy L. Smith, founder and director of
855-660: Is more forgiving of overmodulation , whereby dynamic peaks exceed the maximal recordable signal level: tape's limitation, a physical property, is magnetic capacity, which tapers off, smoothing the overmodulated waveform even at a signal nearly 15 decibels too "hot", whereas a digital recording is ruined by harsh distortion of " clipping " at any overshoot. In digital recording, however, a recent advancement, 32-bit float , enables DAWs to undo clipping. Still, some criticize digital instruments and workflows for excess automation, allegedly impairing creative or sonic control. In any case, as production technology has drastically changed, so have
912-430: Is often likened to that of a film director though there are important differences. It is distinct from the role of an executive producer , who is mostly involved in the recording project on an administrative level, and from the audio engineer who operates the recording technology. Varying by project, the producer may or may not choose all of the artists. If employing only synthesized or sampled instrumentation,
969-787: The Annenberg Inclusion Initiative, based in the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism , issued a report, estimating that in the prior several years, about 2% of popular songs' producers were female. Also that month, Billboard magazine queried, "Where are all the female music producers?" Upon the Annenberg Inclusion Initiative's second annual report, released in February 2019, its department at USC reported, "2018 saw an outcry from artists, executives and other music industry professionals over
1026-707: The "bed tracks"—the rhythm section , including the bassline , drums, and rhythm guitar—whereas vocals and instrument solos could be added later. A horn section , for example, could record a week later, and a string section another week later. A singer could perform her own backup vocals, or a guitarist could play 15 layers. Across the 1960s, popular music increasingly switched from acoustic instruments, like piano, upright bass , acoustic guitar , and brass instruments , to electronic instruments, like electric guitars , keyboards , and synthesizers , employing instrument amplifiers and speakers. These could mimic acoustic instruments or create utterly new sounds. Soon, by combining
1083-457: The 1940s, during World War II, the Germans refined audio recording onto magnetic tape—uncapping recording duration and allowing immediate playback, rerecording, and editing—a technology that premised emergence of record producers in their current roles. Early in the recording industry, a record was attained by simply having all of the artists perform together live in one take. In 1945, by recording
1140-574: The 1950s, on simply improving the record's sonic match to the artists' own live performance. Advances in recording technology, especially the 1940s advent of tape recording —which Les Paul promptly innovated further to develop multitrack recording —and the 1950s rise of electronic instruments, turned record production into a specialty. In popular music, then, producers like George Martin , Phil Spector and Brian Eno led its evolution into its present use of elaborate techniques and unrealistic sounds, creating songs impossible to originate live. After
1197-513: The 1960s. Still, a formal distinction was elusive for some time more. A&R managers might still be creative directors, like William "Mickey" Stevenson , hired by Berry Gordy , at the Motown record label. In 1947, the American market gained audio recording onto magnetic tape. At the record industry's 1880s dawn, rather, recording was done by phonograph , etching the sonic waveform vertically into
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#17328585734381254-501: The 1980s, production's move from analog to digital further expanded possibilities. By now, DAWs, or digital audio workstations , like Logic Pro , Pro Tools and Studio One , turn an ordinary computer into a production console, whereby a solitary novice can become a skilled producer in a thrifty home studio. In the 2010s, efforts began to increase the prevalence of producers and engineers who are women, heavily outnumbered by men and prominently accoladed only in classical music. As
1311-614: The Bride ", Elvis Costello 's " Girls Talk ", Hank DeVito's " Queen of Hearts " (later a larger, international hit for American country-rock singer Juice Newton ), Graham Parker 's " Crawling from the Wreckage ", and Melvin Endsley 's " Singing the Blues " (originally a 1956 US Country No. 1 hit for Marty Robbins , then a US pop No. 1 cover for Guy Mitchell, and a UK No. 1 for both Mitchell and Tommy Steele ). The album Repeat When Necessary received
1368-637: The Kinks produced some of their own songs, although many such songs are officially credited to specialist producers. Yet especially influential was the Beach Boys, whose band leader Brian Wilson took over from his father Murry within a couple of years after the band's commercial breakthrough. By 1964, Wilson had taken Spector's techniques to unseen sophistication. Wilson alone produced all Beach Boys recordings between 1963 and 1967. Using multiple studios and multiple attempts of instrumental and vocal tracks, Wilson selected
1425-654: The album A Legend during the early eighties. The judge agreed and, while the unpaid royalties only amounted to around £70,000 to be divided among the four musicians, the associated court costs to be paid by Stevens and Edmunds amounted to £500,000. On New Year's Eve 2008, he appeared on Jools' Annual Hootenanny , performing " Girls Talk " and " I Hear You Knocking ". He was Holland's guest again at Borde Hill Garden on 20 June 2009, on 28 August at an open-air concert at Carrickfergus Castle , on 31 October at Ipswich Regent , on 7 November at Stoke Victoria Hall and on 14 November at Nottingham Concert Hall . Edmunds also played
1482-409: The artist's and label's goals in the creation of musical content. Other duties include, but are not limited to: keeping budgets and schedules; adhering to deadlines; hiring musicians, singers, studios, and engineers; overseeing other staffing needs; and editing (Classical projects). The producer often selects and collaborates with a mixing engineer, who focuses on the especially technological aspects of
1539-481: The band. In 1993 Edmunds was in Cardiff Crown Court as a co-defendant along with Shakin' Stevens facing charges of non-payment of playing royalties from former Sunsets' band members Robert Llewellyn, Carl Petersen, Steve Percy and Paul Dolan. The prosecution asserted that the former band members were due a share of those additional royalties that Stevens and Edmunds had received from the successful reissue of
1596-469: The best combinations of performance and audio quality, and used tape editing to assemble a composite performance. The 1980s advent of digital processes and formats rapidly replaced analog processes and formats, namely, tape and vinyl. Although recording onto quality tape, at least half an inch wide and traveling 15 inches per second, had limited "tape hiss" to silent sections, digital's higher signal-to-noise ratio , SNR, abolished it. Digital also imparted to
1653-505: The capabilities of tape, multitrack recording, and electronic instruments, producers like Phil Spector , George Martin , and Joe Meek rendered sounds unattainable live. Similarly, in jazz fusion , Teo Macero , producing Miles Davis 's 1970 album Bitches Brew , spliced sections of extensive improvisation sessions. In the 1960s, rock acts like the Beatles , the Rolling Stones , and
1710-501: The chart) and " Born to Be with You " (No. 5 in the chart), he became linked with the pub rock movement of the early 1970s, producing (among others) Brinsley Schwarz , Ducks Deluxe , Flamin' Groovies , and blues rock band Foghat , using a stripped down, grittier sound. Edmunds had bought a house in Rockfield , Monmouth , a few miles away from Charles and Kingsley Ward's Rockfield Studios , where he became an almost permanent fixture for
1767-417: The early afternoon. Unexpectedly, after Rockpile released their first LP under their own name, Seconds of Pleasure (1980), the band split. Edmunds spent the 1980s collaborating with and producing an assortment of artists, including Paul McCartney , King Kurt , Stray Cats , Fabulous Thunderbirds , and Status Quo . On his 1983 release, Information , Edmunds collaborated on two songs with Jeff Lynne ,
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1824-459: The enthusiastic attention of British DJ John Peel , who was so impressed he played it twice in one programme on "Top Gear". The band issued two albums. After Love Sculpture split, Edmunds had a UK Christmas Number 1 single in 1970 with " I Hear You Knocking ", a Smiley Lewis cover, which he came across while producing Shakin' Stevens and the Sunsets ' first album entitled A Legend . The recording
1881-460: The industry are Logic Pro and Pro Tools. Physical devices involved include the main mixer, MIDI controllers to communicate among equipment, the recording device itself, and perhaps effects gear that is outboard. Yet literal recording is sometimes still analog, onto tape, whereupon the raw recording is converted to a digital signal for processing and editing, as some producers still find audio advantages to recording onto tape. Conventionally, tape
1938-669: The knowledge demands, although DAWs enables novices, even teenagers at home, to learn production independently. Some have attained professional competence before ever working with an artist. Among female record producers, Sylvia Moy was the first at Motown , Gail Davies the first on Nashville's Music Row , and Ethel Gabriel , with RCA , the first at a major record label . Lillian McMurry , owning Trumpet Records , produced influential blues records. Meanwhile, Wilma Cozart Fine produced hundreds of records for Mercury Records ' classical division. For classical production, three women have won Grammy awards, and Judith Sherman 's 2015 win
1995-507: The lack of women in music" and "the plight of women in music", where women were allegedly being "stereotyped, sexualized, and shut out". Also in February 2019, the Recording Academy 's Task Force on Diversity and Inclusion announced an initiative whereby over 200 artists and producers—ranging from Cardi B and Taylor Swift to Maroon 5 and Quincy Jones —agreed to consider at least two women for each producer or engineer position. The academy's website, Grammy.com , announced, "This initiative
2052-415: The leader of Electric Light Orchestra . One of these songs, a Lynne composition, " Slipping Away ", became Edmunds' only other US Top 40 hit, spending a single week at No. 39 while having a video clip in heavy rotation on MTV. It was not a hit in the UK. In 1984, Lynne produced six tracks on Edmunds' following album, Riff Raff . He also recorded the soundtrack for the movie Porky's Revenge! , supplying
2109-473: The main theme, "High School Nights." In late 1985, Dave Edmunds was the musical director and a participating band member of Carl Perkins 's Blue Suede Shoes: A Rockabilly Session television special recorded live at Limehouse Studios in London. Other musicians involved in the project included George Harrison , Ringo Starr , Eric Clapton and Rosanne Cash . In 1989, Edmunds produced the album Yo Frankie for Dion . Edmunds recorded less frequently after
2166-571: The manufacturing of record discs. After World War II , pioneering A&R managers who transitioned influentially to record production as now understood, while sometimes owning independent labels, include J. Mayo Williams and John Hammond . Upon moving from Columbia Records to Mercury Records , Hammond appointed Mitch Miller to lead Mercury's popular recordings in New York. Miller then produced country-pop crossover hits by Patti Page and by Frankie Laine , moved from Mercury to Columbia, and became
2223-537: The mid-1980s, living in Wales in semi-retirement, but occasionally touring. He joined up with Ringo Starr & His All-Starr Band for tours in 1992 and 2000. However, 2007 marked a return to touring for Edmunds, alongside Joe Brown , on a lengthy tour around the UK. He made an appearance on stage alongside Stray Cats , at the Brixton Academy in London, on 10 September 2008, playing " The Race Is On " and "Tear It Up" with
2280-770: The music a perceived "pristine" sound quality, if also a loss of analog recordings' perceived "warm" quality and better-rounded bass. Yet whereas editing tape media requires physically locating the target audio on the ribbon, cutting there, and splicing pieces, editing digital media offers inarguable advantages in ease, efficiency, and possibilities. In the 1990s, digital production reached affordable home computers via production software. By now, recording and mixing are often centralized in DAWs, digital audio workstations —for example, Pro Tools , Logic Pro , Ableton , Cubase , Reason , and FL Studio —for which plugins , by third parties, effect virtual studio technology . DAWs fairly standard in
2337-481: The music business. with Love Sculpture : with Rockpile : as Dave Edmunds : with Love Sculpture : as Dave Edmunds : Record producer A record producer or music producer is a music creating project's overall supervisor whose responsibilities can involve a range of creative and technical leadership roles. Typically the job involves hands-on oversight of recording sessions; ensuring artists deliver acceptable and quality performances, supervising
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2394-410: The next twenty years. His working regime involved arriving at the studio in the early evening and working through till well after dawn, usually locked in the building alone. Applying the layered Spector Wall of Sound to his own productions, it was not unusual for Edmunds to multilayer up to forty separately recorded guitar tracks into the mix. His own solo LP from 1975, Subtle as a Flying Mallet ,
2451-438: The precursors of record producers, supervising recording and often leading session orchestras. During the 1940s, major record labels increasingly opened official A&R departments, whose roles included supervision of recording. Meanwhile, independent recording studios opened, helping originate record producer as a specialty. But despite a tradition of some A&R men writing music, record production still referred to just
2508-438: The producer may be the sole artist. Conversely, some artists do their own production. Some producers are their own engineers, operating the technology across the project: preproduction, recording, mixing , and mastering . Record producers' precursors were "A&R men", who likewise could blend entrepreneurial, creative, and technical roles, but often exercised scant creative influence, as record production still focused, into
2565-463: The recording process, namely, operating the electronic equipment and blending the raw, recorded tracks of the chosen performances, whether vocal or instrumental, into a mix , either stereo or surround sound. Then a mastering engineer further adjusts this recording for distribution on the chosen media. A producer may work on only one or two songs or on an artist's entire album, helping develop the album's overall vision. The record producers may also take on
2622-438: The role of executive producer, managing the budget, schedules, contracts, and negotiations. (Artists and Repertoires) In the 1880s, the record industry began by simply having the artist perform at a phonograph . In 1924, the trade journal Talking Machine World , covering the phonography and record industry, reported that Eddie King, Victor Records ' manager of the "New York artist and repertoire department", had planned
2679-483: The single caused EMI's Regal Zonophone Records to use an option that it had to claim Edmunds' album, 1972's Rockpile , and the momentum from the single's success on a different label went away. Edmunds' only acting role followed, as a band member in the David Essex movie Stardust . After learning the trade of producer, culminating in a couple of singles in the style of Phil Spector , " Baby I Love You " (No. 8 in
2736-431: The song in its final mix. The producer's roles can include gathering ideas, composing music, choosing session musicians , proposing changes to song arrangements, coaching the performers, controlling sessions, supervising the audio mixing , and, in some cases, supervising the audio mastering . A producer may give creative control to the artists themselves, taking a supervisory or advisory role instead. As to qualifying for
2793-419: The technical engineering of the recording, and coordinating the production team and process. The producer's involvement in a musical project can vary in depth and scope. Sometimes in popular genres the producer may create the recording's entire sound and structure. However, in classical music recording, for example, the producer serves as more of a liaison between the conductor and the engineering team. The role
2850-455: The title track released as a digital download single. In 2015, Edmunds released his first instrumental album On Guitar... Dave Edmunds: Rags & Classics , which featured instrumental covers of classic songs, such as The Beach Boys ' " God Only Knows " and Elton John 's " Your Song ". The album was Edmunds' final album and after playing a final show in July 2017, he was reported to have retired from
2907-481: The vast majority have been men. Early in the 2010s, asked for insights that she herself had gleaned as a woman who has specialized successfully in the industry, Wendy Page remarked, "The difficulties are usually very short-lived. Once people realize that you can do your job, sexism tends to lower its ugly head." Still, when tasked to explain her profession's sex disparity, Page partly reasoned that record labels, dominated by men, have been, she said, "mistrustful of giving
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#17328585734382964-653: Was an early female record producer, having produced both of her Ivor Novello award-winning songs. Across the decades, many female artists have produced their own music. For instance, artists Kate Bush , Madonna , Mariah Carey , Janet Jackson , Beyoncé (even that of Destiny's Child and the Carters ), Lana Del Rey , Taylor Swift , and Lorde have produced or coproduced and Ariana Grande who produces and arranges her vocals as well as being an audio engineer. Still among specialists, despite some prominent women, including Missy Elliott in hip hop and Sylvia Massy in rock,
3021-451: Was her fifth. Yet in nonclassical, no woman has won Producer of the Year , awarded since 1975 and only one even nominated for a record not her own, Linda Perry. After Lauren Christy 's 2004 nomination, Linda Perry 's 2019 nomination was the next for a woman. On why no woman had ever won it, Perry commented, "I just don't think there are that many women interested." In the U.K., Lynsey de Paul
3078-586: Was in Crick Feathers' Hill-Bills formed in about 1960, with Edmunds ("Feathers") on lead guitar, Zee Dolan on bass, Tennessee Tony on lead vocals, Tony Kees on piano and Hank Two Sticks on drums. The first group that Edmunds fronted was the Cardiff-based 1950s style rockabilly trio the Raiders formed in 1961, along with Brian 'Rockhouse' Davies on bass (born 15 January 1943, Cardiff) and Ken Collier on drums. Edmunds
3135-534: Was similar in style. The Brinsley Schwarz connection brought about a collaboration with Nick Lowe starting with this album, and in 1976 they formed the group Rockpile , with Billy Bremner and Terry Williams . Because Edmunds and Lowe signed to different record labels that year, they could not record as Rockpile until 1980, but many of their solo LPs (such as Lowe's Labour of Lust and Edmunds' own Repeat When Necessary ) were group recordings. Edmunds had more UK hits during this time, including Nick Lowe's " I Knew
3192-514: Was the first release on Edmunds' manager's MAM Records label. This single also reached No. 4 in the US, making it Edmunds' biggest hit by far on either side of Atlantic Ocean . It sold over three million copies, and was awarded a gold disc . Edmunds had intended to record Wilbert Harrison 's "Let's Work Together", but when he was beaten to that song by Canned Heat , he adapted the arrangement he intended to use for it to "I Hear You Knocking". The success of
3249-509: Was the only constant member of the group, which later included bassist Mick Still, Bob 'Congo' Jones on drums (b. 13 August 1946, Barry , South Wales) and John Williams (stage name John David ) on bass. The Raiders worked almost exclusively in the South Wales area. In 1966, after a short spell in a Parlophone recording band, the Image (1965–1966), with local drummer Tommy Riley, Edmunds shifted to
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