30th June 2006, 01:29 PM
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Here is a post I made a while ago in the Ayu Chat forum.
Quote:
According to standard terms and their common usage by those they apply to, the following people can be defined as such.
Writer: A person who creates the lyrics (words) to a song.
Composer: A person who creates the main melody and some subsequent melodies/harmonies to a song, which correspond to the lyrics.
Because of terms like "singer-songwriter", and the failure of the English language to supply a common verb for what composers do, the word "writer" is often applied to composers, as well (although this aggravates some composers and writers). In English, one writes both lyrics and music. Japanese has the right idea: writers "sakushi suru" lyrics and composers "sakkyoku suru" music.
Writers are sometimes composers, and composers are sometimes writers. These people work closely with and offer ideas for further rhythms and melodies to the Arranger.
Arranger: A person who creates the actual instrumental track to back the lyrics and melody. They basically design the creative aspect of the music as a whole piece. For example, an arranger comes up with the drumline, the bassline, the guitar solo after the bridge, et cetera.
Mixer: A person who takes the recorded vocal track, the recorded instrumental track, and mixes them. They then play with the frequency levels; this process is called Mastering. They are like the arranger, except instead of being a creative designer, they are a technical designer, manipulating the potentially hundreds of tracks (in today's music being usually between 50 and 150) so that each one reaches the ear at a proper level. This is to ensure that the vocal track isn't too loud, and that the bells aren't too sharp and piercing, and that the bassline isn't lost behind all the strings, et cetera.
The arranger is sometimes the mixer, and vice versa, but this is considered poor skill. The mixer is usually preferred to be an un-biased, objective worker on a recording, so that his judgement of sound and levels is not blurred by hours and hours of arrangement and design. The arranger or mixer are also often the engineer (see below).
Other people include...
Producer: A producer in the music world is different from a producer in the film, television, and theatre world (whose main job is to gather resource money for the project). A music producer sort of oversees the entire project. Again, he is an objective worker, whose job it is to guide the song to follow the direction the artist is trying to go in. A producer is supposed to make sure the song turns out the way it was planned, and that it fits the album.
Director: A [vocal] director coaches the singer on the way they should sing and emote the song. They help the singer hone their style to get the best performance out of a song (for a recording - a live performance may sound best if the singer sings differently).
Engineer: An engineer is a techie who makes the arranger's work happen in a digital studio or synthesizer workstation. Now that costly live musicians are generally out of the picture for recording sessions, an engineer manipulates sounds to recreate those of actual instruments. Usually, the main engineer is the arranger himself, although he may have additional help.
Publisher: Links the writer/composer to the artist/producer/manager. They distribute songs to those in need of them.
All of these people work so closely together, and share many jobs. They swap ideas, and fuel one-another, so these job titles often become blurred. For example, a director may have the singer sustain a note, while the composer originally composed it as staccato. A composer may go to the arranger with ideas for a guitar solo melody, or a string arrangement already in hand. A publisher may hand a song to a female artist that was written and composed for a man; the arranger may take melodic liberties so the song can be sung by a woman, and the producer may change some of the lyrics so it suits a female situation better. Lines get blurred and crossed.
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