Nowadays many musicians, especially younger ones, assume that with Pro Tools and other digital devices, everyone can be his own George Martin. It's not so. Howard Massey's Behind the Glass, Vol. II: Top Producers Tell How They Craft the Hits (published by Backbeat Books) collects interviews with some 50 record producers, most of them making the case in one way or another that Pro Tools are no substitute for a professional producer.
They're not Luddites. Daniel Lanois shows the author an Edirol digital recorder, the size of a cigarette pack. "I could make an entire album with just four of these!" he says. So could most techno-savvy musicians, but it might not sound as good as his album.
Lanois, who worked with Brian Eno and co-produced albums for U2, Peter Gabriel and Bob Dylan, tells the story of his friend, a prominent LA chef and restaurant owner. "He comes over here and there's hardly anything in my kitchen, but within 20 minutes, there's amazing food coming out, beautifully laid out on plates. He says that's the mark of a resourceful chef: when you can whip something up on the spot with what you've got."
And a bad cook, in the world's best kitchen, couldn't properly fry an egg.
T Bone Burnett puts it another way. "I'm sure there are some [artists] that don't need another perspective … But, you know, T.S. Eliot had Ezra Pound; we all need editors."