At Fig Shed we offer a range of services but you can absolutely pick and choose which ones you would like to use. 

A producer is someone who has an overall idea of the finished project and who can make important decisions throughout the whole process from writing through to completion. This role can be filled by the artist/member of the band or even a group of people but it can be very helpful to have someone who can see from the outside in and who isn’t getting bogged down in the individual takes and mood of the room. A producer’s job is to keep everything on track and be able to read the room to know when to chase that one more take or if taking a break is the best way to move forward. 
It is also important to note that the term “producer” can have different connotations in a traditional studio recording environment vs the more modern digital workstation sense. Both versions of the term contain similar roles in chasing an overall vision of the song, but the “digital workstation” producer often will also contribute in playing and programming musical parts during the recording process.

An engineer’s job is simply to capture your performance in the best way possible. They have the knowledge to put the right microphones in the right positions and make sure you’re comfortable in the studio. It is the engineer that will make sure all the technology is running smoothly and effectively, so that the musicians can focus on giving their best performance.

Once recorded, it is then the mixing engineer’s job to edit and mix the individual tracks to bring the recordings to life. This usually involves balancing volume levels, cleaning things up so that every instrument has it’s own space, applying effects, and gluing parts together so the song works cohesively. Although mixing is more of a technical skill, it is also vitally important in a creative sense, as the decisions made throughout the mixing process will dramatically effect the overall feeling of a song. As an artist or band member, it is important that you visualise what you want the song to sound like and communicate that to the mix engineer. This can be done using demo recordings, reference tracks or artists, and descriptive terms.

The final step in a song’s production process is mastering. Mastering is simply the final processing applied to the mixed track in order to boost it up to competitive levels. The goal of a mastering engineer is usually to make a song sound as big, wide, cohesive and full as possible, whilst raising the volume levels as much as possible before distorting the track. This is because humans perceive music which is louder to be more full of detail, so you don’t want your song to sound quieter and thinner when played directly next to its competition.

If you’d like to learn more about any of these processes, please get in contact and we’d love to have a chat to you 🙂