West Coast Connection Forum

DUBCC - Tha Connection => West Coast Classics => Topic started by: topshotta on April 17, 2005, 10:17:30 AM

Title: Gotta make a few things clear 'bout Dre and production credits in general
Post by: topshotta on April 17, 2005, 10:17:30 AM

Alot of you seem to think that just because it only says "produced by: Dr. Dre" in the credits it's only
Dre alone that has done all the work with the music. There's alot of people involved in the progress of producing music, especially on a major label..

I just wanna clear this out for people starting threads saying Dre is giving up his production credits and so on, when it's really not the case at all, it's more like he's letting people from his camp get their fair share of the credits. When Dre was at Death Row, things were not handled like that, there were alot of missleading production credits at Death Row Records in general, probably partially because of how Suge Knight was handling the business, so probably it's Suge fault partially. Often you got the wrong idea about who really was doing what on the tracks by reading the booklet. Although they we'rent totally wrong, the production credits weren't alwayz as fair as they could've/should've been.. But to get back to how it's over at Dre's Aftermath right now, you have to realize the following:

There's often around like 10 people or so involved in the different parts of the production for just one single track.
First you'll need a recording engineer, then there's always assistent engineers too. Then for the instrument part there can be different musicians for each instrument heard on the track. One person playing the keyboards, one who's playing bass & guitar for example, basically there can be different people for each instrument used. Then you got one who's programming the drums, and also here there's often an assistent drum programmer or atleast someone who does additional programming. That goes for every part like you might noticied, there's often people doing additional production for each part of the sound in the music. Not always, but very often..
Then (at last), you gots to have a person that is overseeing this whole process, mixing it all together and control the output of how the final product is going to sound.
That is were Dre comes in the picture. That's really mainly what he's doing. He's the overseer of the whole creating process and how the output of the music is coming out. So it's he has a big role in the progress defintely. He is able to change the different parts that he feels could sound better, and because they are all working as a team, sometimes the credits can be a little missleading, and that is probably why Dre has started giving up the fair production credits more and more since he started Aftermath. Basically he's letting his team get their right and fair share of credit for the job they've done.
Dre has said in lots of interviews that, right now, he got the the best crew for his productions and that it has took a long time to get there. So now he's letting people of his production-crew come out of the shadow cause Dre probably feels they've become a weld bond a team together youknow..
But people around Dre's production have always been there and are just as much as Dre responsible for the output really, it's just that Dre have "the last word" in the progress. So when it says produced by Dr.Dre, it's a whole team behind that one name! It's just like any other job, there's different people on different parts of a working progress. And Dre is the topdogg of the music output that comes out of his camp. These are people working with, makin a living, gettin a sallery every month from Aftermath Records which Dre is the main owner of... Gotta be pretty obvious really that there's not only one person(producer) makin a beat, and one person(rapper) doing the vocals in a production coming from Interscope Records, one of the biggest record label distributors in the world. This is big business and several peoples are involved, probably alot more than you think!
Title: Re: Gotta make a few things clear 'bout Dre and production credits in general
Post by: Denial! Is Actively Joinin The Revolution on April 17, 2005, 02:38:29 PM
man i aint got time to read all that but thanx for the point it is a team effort by dres camp
Title: Re: Gotta make a few things clear 'bout Dre and production credits in general
Post by: Soul Sanatorium on April 17, 2005, 03:04:53 PM
True. I think Dre's musical on hands production as most might know is his drum programming on his productions. Not certain about the Deathrow era, but since aftermath I never heard of anybody else doing the drums for Dre on his productions. But I'm sure he might have had some help with them even.
Title: Re: Gotta make a few things clear 'bout Dre and production credits in general
Post by: icebergslimIII on April 17, 2005, 03:54:53 PM
So, who are the official producers associated only with Aftermath?  Mike Elizondo and Scott Storch? I dind't know if they were strictly Aftermath producers or independent producers who work with Dre. With all the above comments said, I know Dre has a team that he works with, but I know how other producers aren't nearly as successful when they don't have Dre helping in the process (i.e. Daz). It's no surprise that some of these one hit producers only hits have been when Dre was involved. Just my two cents.
Title: Re: Gotta make a few things clear 'bout Dre and production credits in general
Post by: makaveli11 on April 17, 2005, 04:17:36 PM

Alot of you seem to think that just because it only says "produced by: Dr. Dre" in the credits it's only
Dre alone that has done all the work with the music. There's alot of people involved in the progress of producing music, especially on a major label..

I just wanna clear this out for people starting threads saying Dre is giving up his production credits and so on, when it's really not the case at all, it's more like he's letting people from his camp get their fair share of the credits. When Dre was at Death Row, things were not handled like that, there were alot of missleading production credits at Death Row Records in general, probably partially because of how Suge Knight was handling the business, so probably it's Suge fault partially. Often you got the wrong idea about who really was doing what on the tracks by reading the booklet. Although they we'rent totally wrong, the production credits weren't alwayz as fair as they could've/should've been.. But to get back to how it's over at Dre's Aftermath right now, you have to realize the following:

There's often around like 10 people or so involved in the different parts of the production for just one single track.
First you'll need a recording engineer, then there's always assistent engineers too. Then for the instrument part there can be different musicians for each instrument heard on the track. One person playing the keyboards, one who's playing bass & guitar for example, basically there can be different people for each instrument used. Then you got one who's programming the drums, and also here there's often an assistent drum programmer or atleast someone who does additional programming. That goes for every part like you might noticied, there's often people doing additional production for each part of the sound in the music. Not always, but very often..
Then (at last), you gots to have a person that is overseeing this whole process, mixing it all together and control the output of how the final product is going to sound.
That is were Dre comes in the picture. That's really mainly what he's doing. He's the overseer of the whole creating process and how the output of the music is coming out. So it's he has a big role in the progress defintely. He is able to change the different parts that he feels could sound better, and because they are all working as a team, sometimes the credits can be a little missleading, and that is probably why Dre has started giving up the fair production credits more and more since he started Aftermath. Basically he's letting his team get their right and fair share of credit for the job they've done.
Dre has said in lots of interviews that, right now, he got the the best crew for his productions and that it has took a long time to get there. So now he's letting people of his production-crew come out of the shadow cause Dre probably feels they've become a weld bond a team together youknow..
But people around Dre's production have always been there and are just as much as Dre responsible for the output really, it's just that Dre have "the last word" in the progress. So when it says produced by Dr.Dre, it's a whole team behind that one name! It's just like any other job, there's different people on different parts of a working progress. And Dre is the topdogg of the music output that comes out of his camp. These are people working with, makin a living, gettin a sallery every month from Aftermath Records which Dre is the main owner of... Gotta be pretty obvious really that there's not only one person(producer) makin a beat, and one person(rapper) doing the vocals in a production coming from Interscope Records, one of the biggest record label distributors in the world. This is big business and several peoples are involved, probably alot more than you think!

I agree with you 100% percent on this ... you could have not said it better. The only thing I want to say is that this is what a producer is - the overseer of the whole creating process. He doesn't have to play a single note or record a single track as long as he is the one coming up with the rhythm of the beat. He also doesn't have to mix it too since they are mixing engineers. I am only saying this because it sounded like you said the musicians were responsible for coming up with the rhythm of the beat rather than just providing live instrumentation. If the musicians were partially responsible for the rhythm of the beat, then that is when you have co - producers. Just my five cents, other than that you were right on the money. 
Title: Re: Gotta make a few things clear 'bout Dre and production credits in general
Post by: Larrabee on April 17, 2005, 05:51:56 PM
By basically reading the booklets, EVERYONE involved gets fair credit. Musicians, engineers, everyone...Dre's credits are the most accurate in the business, because of the co-producer credits he's been sharing, instrumental credits and engineer credits. It's not like 10 people behind one track, though. That's false, it's more like 5, if that many. Take "How We Do", for example. Dre & Mike Elizondo produced it, Mike & Scott Storch played the music, Dre obviously does the drums, and then you got the engineers & assistants. Musically, only 3 cats were responsible, not 10.
Title: Re: Gotta make a few things clear 'bout Dre and production credits in general
Post by: Shawn Nutt on April 17, 2005, 06:55:32 PM
Mark Batson does some producing here n there. Veto does most of tha mixing.
Title: Re: Gotta make a few things clear 'bout Dre and production credits in general
Post by: tonysilas on April 17, 2005, 07:41:55 PM
very true, but it ain't bad

(http://www.undergrounddynaztyrecords.com/linksbanner.jpg)
Title: Re: Gotta make a few things clear 'bout Dre and production credits in general
Post by: West Coast Veteran on April 17, 2005, 07:44:58 PM
Dre with Mel-Man > Dre with Scott Storch, Mike Elizondo, etc.
Title: Re: Gotta make a few things clear 'bout Dre and production credits in general
Post by: HK Mofo on April 17, 2005, 11:47:27 PM
{{recording engineer}}

U lost me right here my man.  A producer and recording engineer do not have the same job.  A recording engineer does not producer.  Engineers usually get credits for the job they do depending on the level they participate.

Production involves composition.  A recording engineer usually can't fk with that.

And while I'm at it, this isn't typically a damm band where u record 10 guys playin each instrument in a studio together.  Most all the sounds minus the bass from Elizondo are comin' from a computer bank of some sorts, out of a sound bank (still what I consider real instruments), and laid down into multi track from and by DRE.  Dre's MPC may have a lot to do with it, but he also takes his sounds from a variety of electronic sources.

It might help if u had been in a studio b4 u come lecturing "alot" of ppl here, "alot" here got it ova u.
 

Title: Re: Gotta make a few things clear 'bout Dre and production credits in general
Post by: BOX5 the best poster on this site yell on April 18, 2005, 01:04:08 AM
dre's five mpc's at that haha,i agree with you mostly,but like oh boy said,the recording engineer has no part of the production,unless it's the producer himself,but i really think dre gives them cats co produce credits when they come up with part of the beat on they own,then he collabs with them by adding his touch to it, but also some producers can and do it all them selves TRAJIC PLAYS EVERYTHING HIMSELF FROM DRUM PROGRAMMING TO BASS,KEYBOARD SAMPLES ETC,but can't take nothing away from dre he does his productions in the same since quincy jones does his now yell
Title: Re: Gotta make a few things clear 'bout Dre and production credits in general
Post by: topshotta on April 18, 2005, 03:47:03 AM
{{recording engineer}}

U lost me right here my man.  A producer and recording engineer do not have the same job.  A recording engineer does not producer.  Engineers usually get credits for the job they do depending on the level they participate.

Production involves composition.  A recording engineer usually can't fk with that.

And while I'm at it, this isn't typically a damm band where u record 10 guys playin each instrument in a studio together.  Most all the sounds minus the bass from Elizondo are comin' from a computer bank of some sorts, out of a sound bank (still what I consider real instruments), and laid down into multi track from and by DRE.  Dre's MPC may have a lot to do with it, but he also takes his sounds from a variety of electronic sources.

It might help if u had been in a studio b4 u come lecturing "alot" of ppl here, "alot" here got it ova u.
 



Ofcourse it hasn't have to be 10 guys playing each instrument, I just wanted to really make it clear that Dre doesn't do all the job alone in the studio. And ofcourse the engineer has nothing to do with the music itself, I just meant that an engineer is a must in the progress. Probably most of the stuff they come up with is just by Elizondo jamming with a guitar and Dre looping up somethin to the riff over the mpc, I've read he has like 5 mpc rolling at once.. So the composition can change from time to time, I just wanted to make it clearer why is often says more than produced by "only" Dre on the production credits from the Math nowadays!
Title: Re: Gotta make a few things clear 'bout Dre and production credits in general
Post by: Machiavelli on April 18, 2005, 03:06:26 PM
 Mike Elizondo or whoever else can do the Drums, Bass, Guitar, Keyboards, or basically make the whole beat and dre can still be the producer. A producer is someone who directs the song and how the it will sound like. Dre usally does the drums and thats it, but sometimes he has other people to do them. Hes not a beatmaker hes a producer.