The producer is, first and foremost, a trusted listener.For this it's crucial to have a firm grounding in musical as well as engineering fundamentals. As a result of my extensive background as a working musician on stage and in the studio, I'm quick to say when a track's in time and in tune, when it grooves and drives, and when it sounds real and appropriately hi-fi over the monitors.

It's important that the final CD sound up-to-date--that is, reflective of what's going on currently with radio, in the biz, and in society in general. But it's equally important to avoid the plague of splashy sonic bandwagons and trends. A record should aspire to a timelessness; nothing becomes dated faster than the latest smash sound effect. Novel, fun experimental sounds are important in enlivening and highlighting an album, but human beings react much more deeply to the sound of other humans than to the sound of a cracker-barrel shotgun snare sample.

I rely on my discrete Neve modules and my tube and other vintage gear for warm, detailed tracking. I'm also enamored of (and well-versed in) the possibilities of Pro Tools random-access editing and mixing, especially when used with the superb-sounding Waves software. The issue is not analog versus digital, but simply whatever is necessary to get the best performances on the record.