Tech studio question

[aaflyer98]

Hey all you tech smart people - here's a question for you.
On the Carpenters albums, when the credits say "Enginerred by Roger Young", or whoever, is that the same thing as "mixed by..."?
What exactly did the Engineer do, mix the tracks? Or is it something totally different, and if it's the same as mixing, how did the term change?
Just wondering!
Thanks!

 

[Mike Blakesley]

Well, there's the "recording engineer," who operates the machinery when the recording is originally made, and the "mixing engineer," who oversees when the recorded parts are mixed.

Mixing consists of placing items in the stereo spectrum, adding echo and other effects, raising and lowering the volume on various things, adding additional sounds, taking sounds out, etc. In short, taking the recorded pieces and combining them into a finished recording.

If you only see one engineer listed on a recording, it's possible that the same person did the recording AND mixing engineering. But keep in mind that on old recordings, not everyone got credit the way they do today.

The producer oversees all of it, and some producers are producer/engineers (Alan Parsons being a prime example).