Knowledge is power

The 2 most misused and misunderstood words in Vietnam recording studios and by song writers/composers. And here is their true meaning,

Producer:
A general term that can mean almost anything. In the record business, this person is often called a recording director.

Record Producer:
The recording director supervises the engineering, coaches the performers and musicians and finally decides when everybody can go home! Sadly, there are a lot fewer recording directors around today than there were thirty years ago. Instead we now have "engineer-producers," "artist-producers," and other such combinations which often really means there is no producer, and the worse case is that most song writer and composer always think they are borned producer because they wrote the songs...a very rare case, you can count on the fingers of one hand.
That doesn't mean there's anything wrong with producing yourself, just that I think the opportunity to work with a real experienced recording director is well worth the time and expense. I'd also love to see more people become record producers for others. In my experience it gets the job done both faster and better, provided the producer really knows what they are doing

Bob Ollshon of Georgetown Mastering.