Music Producing & Engineering
Course 15: Error Analysis

As the producer of a project, you are responsible for quality control. Sure, there may be others to help out: a good performer will know when they are off or a good engineer will be able to catch subtle mistakes. But when all is said and done, the producer has the final say on the product–everyone looks to the producer.

Learning how to recognize and appropriately address mistakes during the recording process is a huge part of being a professional producer. You’ll learn to listen for timing issues, phrasing problems, rhythm errors, and just plain wrong notes. And once you’ve recognized these (potential) problems, you’ll learn how to make the appropriate changes or edits to help the track or song.

At the end of this course, you should understand how to troubleshoot and deal with issues should they arise during a session (and how planning makes everything easier) and that technical errors and limitations can lead to roadblocks they will need to resolve. You’ll also demonstrate how to assess an issue, use basic problem-solving skills when finding solutions, and implement these solutions.

Your assignment for this course will be to visit an interactive site that helps you recognize sometimes subtle performance errors. This is in addition to a course review, a listening list, a quiz, and a blog post. This is an important course in the program because it goes directly to the heart of what a producer does for their clients.

Objectives:

• Understand that the ability to troubleshoot and work around issues that arise will be essential to their success as a producer.
• Understand that technical errors and limitations can lead to roadblocks they will need to resolve to create a finished product.
• Will put basic problem-solving into practice in order to find solutions to problems that arise when creating music.
• Understand the importance of effectively assessing, then finding resolutions to issues that arise to presently achieve success.
• Demonstrate an ability to effectively problem-solve potential issues.