I have 45 years experience in the studio, but the major way I thoroughly learned production was to hire a producer and learn from what he did.

Among many other things he arranged the recording sessions, decided what musicians were needed and hired the musicians, hired the arranger, booked the studio, booked the food at the sessions(!), and directed the sessions. He worked with me before every step to get my approval of all artistic concepts, but once we had a plan, I did not want to do any production work, just concentrate on performing, and thus he made me feel at ease (probably the single most important step). He also assisted with post-production work on mixing, mastering and marketing.

BIAB 2025 Win Audiophile. Software: Studio One 7 Pro, Swam horns, Acoustica-7, Notion 6, Song Master Pro, Win 11 Home. Hardware: Intel i9, 32 Gb; Roland Integra-7, Presonus 192 & Faderport 8, Royer 121, Adam Sub8 & Neumann 120 monitors.