This is a great question and I'll tell you why. Production is expensive because real engineers have highly trained ears to hear in 1/3 octaves from 20Hz-20kHz and are able to remove anomalies from the frequency spectrum and boost the pleasing (root) frequencies of a given instrument.
Not only that, but angles when recording are actually quite important when it comes to capturing a sound without any phasing issues, some people may think it's as simple as flipping the phase button, however that's only a small part of it. It's knowing microphones, their frequency response and capture type (cardioid, supercardioid, hypercardioid, figure 8, Deca Tree, etc) as well as capsule type (Dynamic, Ribbon or Codenser).
The ability to combine all of these aspects is large and not just anybody can do it. I believe that in today's electronic based production world filled with presets many artists and bands believe that what they record is superb, that they have the ability to recognize balance in level and pan. While some may have an idea of this, they are unable to truly piece it together.
Slapping a preset on an instrument from iZotope Nectar, any Waves plugin, etc is not a true mix and presets do not work on every single sound and the reason why is because not every sound has the same frequency response. The same goes for using Ozone on the master, it won't sound right because each song has a completely different balance in both frequency and pan.
Mixing itself is quite a long process and can take 8-10 hours per song depending on track count. Mastering can take a few days as it's a much different process dealing with tracks as a whole and creative cohesiveness between mixes on an album as well as equal loudness.
Take all of these aspects (mic selection, phase coherence, frequency spectrum, etc) and ask yourself honestly: Do you really know what you are doing when you turn those knobs? Do you know what the phase button actually does? Do you know the root frequency of a kick drum, alto sax or tympani drum? If the answer is an honest "No." You now understand why the cost is what it is.
You can not learn all of this on Youtube, an online course or anywhere else online for that matter. It takes practical experience and extensive, hard earned knowledge. You may learn basics, but piecing all of this together from start to finish is nigh improbable for the average musician who is also writing, trying to tour, etc.
The cheap deals out there will get you in a bad loop of being stressed and unhappy with your sound; thus cause you to lose trust in real engineers and assume that because of a charge you deem too much, is actuality what you would've wanted to spend in the first place to achieve what you were looking for from the very beginning! Less is not more in the case of recording, mixing and mastering.
It's not about who has label credits or who has the cheapest deal, it's about who has the EARS to get you there.
By: Josh Hayward
