Sound engineer and producer, the art of working with other artists:

The purpose of this research and the two interviews conducted is to clarify and investigate what the creative/artistic role of a sound engineer and or a producer working on another person's project is or can be.

During my studies, I realised that I was unclear what the artistic role of a sound engineer or producer working on other people's art might be and how much artistic and creative input was required of him in his work. I have always thought a lot about how much I wanted to involve my creative spirit in my future work, and I started thinking that I would like to work with the art of others so that I would not have to exhaust my artistic input by always having to create from scratch. So I decided to explore this issue through research and thanks to the availability of two professionals and friends whom I was able to interview:

Luca Wezel (a sound engineer with a past as an artist) and Enea Di Salvo (a producer who also deals with the recording, mixing and mastering process).

Before we start, let's define the roles:

 the sound engineer is often confused with a sound technician, one does not exclude the other but according to the definition, a sound engineer is someone who is in charge of recording, mixing and mastering, while the sound technician is someone who is in charge of setting up the microphones, positioning any sound panels and possibly recording. Having made this clarification, we can start by excluding the role of the sound engineer from our research to concentrate on recording, mixing, mastering engineer and the figure of the producer as these are worlds that often intersect and are often carried out by the same person as well as being strongly linked to the main artist. A sound engineer is often seen as a figure hidden behind machines. Although he is not a sound technician, there is often a tendency to think that his work is exclusively technical, despite the fact that his work is also creative and artistic. The producer, on the other hand, is in charge of creating a track or a beat for an artist, his work can be considered primarily artistic, but there are still many technical aspects to his work, including often dealing with recording, the role of the sound engineer.

Who did we interview?

-Luca Wezel: is a Swiss sound engineer who after a background in hip hop as a producer and as a rapper decided to specialise in recording, mixing and mastering engineering through 3 years of studies in Berlin. After finishing his studies he returned to Switzerland and now works on various projects for other mainly Swiss and Italian artists.

-Enea Di Salvo: Influenced by hip-hop, jazz, and the electronic sounds of the late 90s and early 2000s, Disse (Enea Di Salvo) navigates the Swiss and European music scene with remarkable skill. The longtime producer of Ele A since the start of her career, continues to refine his craft through personal music projects, dynamic DJ sets, and compositions for a wide range of artists.

Sound engineer job analysis:

A sound engineer has three main roles: recording engineer, mixing engineer and mastering engineer. A sound engineer can perform all these roles or specialise in only one. A recording engineer is primarily concerned with choosing the best microphones for the situation, positioning these microphones in the best possible way to achieve the best possible result, and recording and advising artists on any adjustments as well as making them comfortable in a studio environment. A mixing engineer is responsible for balancing the volumes of the individual recorded channels and effecting them in such a way as to make the sound better and to take it in the desired direction, he is mainly concerned with balancing all the elements of the track and cleaning them up so that they all have the right space in terms of volume, frequencies and panning. A mastering engineer, on the other hand, is responsible for finalising the product delivered to him by the mixing engineer and bringing this single track containing all the elements to the level used by the music, film, vinyl, ... markets, he also makes sure that the panning is correct and that the frequencies are balanced as well as possible, then corrects the final imperfections before release.

After these brief definitions of the roles of a sound engineer, we can intuit that a sound engineer has less artistic incisiveness than a singer, someone who plays an instrument or a producer. We can also guess, however, that each of his or her choices has a major bearing on the final result, from the choice of microphones to the choice of mixing and mastering tools the sound engineer is confronted with decisions that we can say have an artistic impact on the final product.

Analysis of the work of a producer:

A music producer working with or for another artist performs a more creative job than the sound engineer in dealing with the “creation” of a track or beat. Again, the possibilities for artistic choices change depending on the project and how the producer works with the artist in question. The producer may be asked for a specific work, with a reference on which to base himself and thus have a fairly clear direction, or he may collaborate with the artist already during the creation of the beat so as to intertwine the artistic vision of the two. Obviously, the more specific the request, the less artistic freedom a producer will have, while the more the artist lets himself be carried away by the producer and new ideas, the more freedom the producer will have.

The roles of the artist, producer and sound engineer can easily intertwine, for example it is very common for a producer to also take care of the recording part and maybe even mixing and mastering, sometimes it is the mixing engineer who also takes care of recording the main artist. In addition, when they collaborate with the main artist, they often also act as advisors to the artist, thus becoming an active part of the creative process and influencing the choices of the main artist, depending of course on their flexibility in terms of choices.

Dividing the roles:

Dividing the roles and the various steps mentioned above has both positive and negative sides at the same time, having several people working on the same project and dividing all the steps over several people ensures that we have more different points of view and more different artistic visions, but it takes away from the personality of the music and it becomes easier to lose the initial artistic vision and the idea of the main artist. By working alone, or taking care of several steps personally, one is able to apply one's artistic vision to a greater extent, for example, I can choose the type of microphones or the positioning already knowing that in the mix I will try to achieve a certain sonority with the help of other tools, this allows me to expand my artistic choices over several steps. The disadvantage of taking on more roles can be to focus too much on elements that we consider important and maybe in someone else's ear would not be, working with fewer people we receive less feedback and fewer different opinions. Finding a good balance can be the right solution to maintain the initial artistic vision while still having more opinions. It is also beneficial to the end result to have good communication between the parties, i.e. a production made according to the artist, a recording made according to the mixing engineer and a mix made according to the mastering engineer, in this way the artistic vision can be maintained even if the steps are divided among several people.

The social aspect of working with other people's art:

Working with other artists, and especially with their art, a sound engineer or producer becomes almost like a psychologist or therapist, they have to be able to put the artist at ease so that he can express his ideas and his art to the best of his ability, at the same time they have to be able to create a relationship of trust, trust is essential since you are working with someone else's art. Art is the most personal and dearest thing to an artist, it is important that he feels free to express it at its best. A relationship of transparency and trust means that there can be direct communication between the parties and that everyone can express themselves freely and listen to the advice of others without feeling that their artistic product is being attacked. Depending on the relationship you manage to create with the artist you work with, the way in which the parties are able to apply their artistic vision changes, and this also depends on the time you have available to collaborate with this person. You also have to be able to understand the person you have in front of you, what kind of needs they have. Some artists only look to others for confirmation of the quality of their product, others are genuinely interested in advice and modifications, others need someone who believes in their potential and spurs them on by giving them direction and advice, while others still need to be restrained and brought back to reality because they become too involved, they lose objectivity and tend to want to value things they are attached to more for sentimental value than for quality. Furthermore, it is important that the workplace, in case the artist has to come to you to record in the studio, is cosy, a warm and welcoming place allows you to feel at home and relax your mind.

What makes us professionals in working with others:

In order to work with other artists we need to be able to facilitate, accommodate and perhaps reshape the artistic trajectory of the person we are working with. if we can do our job well the quality of the artistic contribution and the creative possibilities of each individual increase and the final product benefits. We have to be good at reading who we have in front of us, understand their needs and requirements and decorate or retouch some imperfections according to our artistic vision.

In conclusion:

to conclude the above the artistic contribution of a sound engineer or producer varies depending on the type of relationship they establish with the artist/client, how they manage to make them feel comfortable and allow them to express their art freely. Furthermore, artistic choices can be found in every technical gesture such as the selection of microphones, the tools used, the spaces used for recording, and how many of these steps each individual carries out, adding a part of his or her artistic vision. It is also very influential how much time we can spend with the artist and how many stages of the work we are involved in, e.g. the artistic input of both parties will change if the production is done together.