What Is Pre-production? It’s a thing of the past, that’s what it is! Pre-production is something that you had to do when studios were expensive places and time in them was limited. You did pre-production in a rehearsal room with your band, so you could walk into an expensive studio and be ready to go. Now that everyone has DAW software on their own computers - or even on their phones - it’s not necessary anymore. The proverbial ‘studio clock’ is no longer ticking.

Well yes, but also no.

It’s a reality that much of recording is done these days in home or project studios, and often in isolation or by exchanging files. And because of that, more often than not, there isn’t going to be a designated or official, professional, separate producer on most of these projects, But despite that fact, I’m going to say that you in many ways still need one.