Rick Rubin - Production Style

Production Style

Rubin's biggest trademark as a producer has been a "stripped-down" sound, which involves eliminating production elements such as string sections, backup vocals, and reverb, and instead having naked vocals and bare instrumentation. However, by the 2000s, Rubin's style had been known to include such elements, as noted in the Washington Post: "As the track reaches a crescendo and Diamond's portentous baritone soars over a swelling string arrangement, Rubin leans back, as though floored by the emotional power of the song." Iconic producer Dr. Dre once stated that Rick was, "hands down, the dopest producer ever that anyone would ever want to be, ever."

On the subject of his production methods, Dan Charnas, a music journalist who worked as vice president of A&R and marketing at Rubin's American Recordings label in the 1990s, said, "He's fantastic with sound and arrangements, and he's tremendous with artists. They love him. He shows them how to make it better, and he gets more honest and exciting performances out of people than anyone." Natalie Maines of the Dixie Chicks has praised his production methods, saying, "He has the ability and the patience to let music be discovered, not manufactured. Come to think of it, maybe he is a guru."

Not all artists who have worked with Rubin have enjoyed his production style: Although he and his band mates had some positive things to say about Rubin, Slipknot's lead singer Corey Taylor said that he only met Rubin four times during the entire recording process of Vol. 3 (The Subliminal Verses) and that Rubin barely showed up to the studio: "...we were being charged horrendous amounts of money. And for me, if you're going to produce something, you're fucking there. I don't care who you are."

One of the trademarks of Rubin's production is that he encourages his artists to genre-bend and cover songs that wouldn't normally be expected from them: rap stars Run-D.M.C. would cover hard rock band Aerosmith's "Walk This Way", country music star Johnny Cash would cover "Hurt" by industrial band Nine Inch Nails and "Personal Jesus" by synthpop band Depeche Mode, and Southern rock band ZZ Top would cover "25 Lighters" by DJ DMD. These covers would often receive acclaim both critically and commercially.