?My saga as a fledgling producer continues. I've always said that I've had the unique experience of recording a little over 700 songs. Most of these were done in a “cram as many songs as possible into a weekend” type of method which can work, but is exceptionally rare. I've decided that I'd rather make 2 great records per year than a bunch of crappy ones.

I've always said that I've been trained on what not to do as a producer. The biggest thing is if the song doesn't make me feel something, I need to make changes to ensure the song does make me feel something. Either that, or I need a new song.

Well, after sitting back and doing a few mixes on the first project that I'm finished “producing” it's extremely clear that I entirely underproduced this recording. The type of music we were going for is sort of a country / pop type of thing. That genre calls for a lot of “candy”. It appears that I lost site of just how much was needed.

It's very tricky deciding just how much stuff to cram into a song. It's even more difficult when it's just a producer and a solo artist. There is no extra person there to come up with new, exciting parts so all the music must come from either me (the producer) or the artist. I found adding organ parts to be quite tricky. I've never played organ in my life. I've barely listened to it.

So when it comes down to it, songs generally have a lot more going on that we realize. We may only think we are hearing drums, bass, guitar, and vocals but there is generally A LOT more going on.

Just for the hell of it, I figured I break apart of pop song. The first mp3 I grabbed was Real McCoy's “Another Night Another Dream” song from the mid-early 90s. I clicked on it specifically because I wanted to see how the dance music guys were doing it. Dance music is often ridiculed for not being original and being little more than cliches, so I wanted to see how they shaped the song from being your typical dance music beats to being a mega hit.

What strikes me first was the lack of instrumentation. It's not like they have 35 different instruments going at the same time. The magic is in where they put instruments. There seam to be different drum sounds at different parts. The piano that starts the song has a way of working itself in and out of the song in a way that adds a lot to the song. The arpeggiated thing comes in halfway through the into, changes just a little bit during the verse, stops, and stops at various times. There is an organ sound that also comes in at various times. There is a guy singing “ah's” at various time.

When I was sitting in the control room on my project, I was thinking that we had to come up with these tremendous musical parts. What's interesting about the “Another Night Another Dream” song is there is only really cool musical part that would stand on it's own. It's in the bridge. Everything else is just complementary stuff arranged in a way that really makes the song exciting.

Hmm. Maybe I should do a whole series on teaching myself how to produce.