A Music Producer's Thoughts to Create By

You never know where or when an idea, a story, or a melody will come to you. The creative flow is within all of us. But how do you harness that energy and learn to produce top-quality recordings? It all boils down to three required elements: a great song, a great performance of that song, and a great sound. "A Music Producer's Thoughts to Create By" will help you learn to recognize and create these three elements. Producer, engineer, and musician Keith Olsen has spent decades in the music industry, and in this exciting new book, he shares his expertise on musical themes, performance, arrangement, and musical trends. Then he takes you into the recording studio, with discussions of microphone placement, recording of drums, acoustic and electric guitars, monitor speakers, and the pros and cons of building a home studio. After you've mastered those concepts, you will learn about the more technical nuts and bolts of producing, the vibe in the studio, and of course the engineering aspects, including the use of effects, the spectrum of sound, and mixing. Finally, you need to know your path through advertising and legal matters for your productions, and Olsen does not disappoint, demystifying promotion, royalties and copyrights, pirating, and intellectual property rights. In short, this comprehensive guide is your key to the world of producing quality products!

As Keith Olsen began his career in the music industry, he sensed a change in the direction of Pop and Rock music, and spent the next 25 years helping to define it. A six time Grammy winner, he produced and engineered album projects with artists such as; Fleetwood Mac, Foreigner, Pat Benatar, Rick Springfield, Santana, Sammy Hagar, Whitesnake, Scorpions and Ozzy Osborne just to name a few, netting a 1 in 4 Gold or better ratio, of which more than 24 are Platinum or better, and more than 14 are multi-Platinum. Sales from Keith Olsen's work exceeds 110 million units at retail, equaling more than a Billion dollars in business. To date his work appears on more than 250 albums and in many movies. Now this noteworthy producer shares his expertise on songs, musical themes and trends, arrangements and the ultimate importance of performance with you in this one of a kind book. He takes you into the recording studio, with "where to begin" discussions on microphone placement, and recording focus on the main ingredients of most records; vocals, drums, bass, pianos, acoustic and electric guitars. He covers the technical nuts and bolts of monitor speakers and the pros and cons of building a home studio. His writes as if he's sitting in the room with you talking about the art of production, showing how it always includes engineering, use of effects, and understanding the spectrum of sound, especially in mixing. Additionally, the music industry is of course a business, so your records need to make money. To this end, Keith demystifies some of the pitfalls of the industry on a whole, looking at advertising and promotion, as well as some of the legal issues you need to be aware of includingroyalties and copyrights, pirating, and intellectual property rights.

Keith Olsen is the producer of such notable artists as: Fleetwood Mac, Foreigner, Pat Benatar, Rick Springfield, Santana, The Babys, Sammy Hagar, Whitesnake, Ozzy Osborne, The Scorpions, and Heart, just to mention a few. His many soundtrack albums include: Footloose, Flashdance, Tron, Vision Quest, Top Gun, That Was Then-This Is Now and many more. He produced and engineered more than 125 full albums garnering a 1 in 4 gold album ratio and was awarded 6 Grammys. He has sold over 110 million units at retail and his work appears on more than 250 albums. During the late 90's he was headhunted by Mackie Designs, a pro audio equipment manufacturer, to design, develop, and define higher end professional products for their newly started Mackie Broadcast Professional Division. He was elected to the post of National Trustee of NARAS in 2001. From this position he has had ever increasing visibility is areas of Intellectual Property Rights, Illegal Copyright Theft, and archival of past works.