You listen to a finished song, most people do, hearing the artist singing it. But behind that voice, there’s typically a tribe of people toiling behind the scenes the studio guys. These are the producers, engineers, beatmakers and musicians who sit with the music for hours, if not days, position small pieces until everything makes sense.

An individual can work all night just on one sound of a snare drum. Another might lay down a vocal line 20 times, all in the name of capturing one fleeting spark of feeling. It’s not about showing off. It’s what needs for the song. These are folks with ears to hear the filigree many of us wouldn’t recognize.Small bass thinner in tenor than desired?A just outside the box octave? They hear it all.

Some work in big studios, with costly gear. Others are at home with headphones and a laptop. But the emphasis is the same mold the sound until it lands where it should. And they start easily lied to, which is where they belong, chasing feelings with tools software, instruments, silence. And they generally don’t receive a lot of credit. Their names are small and, if they’re there at all. But it would still make the music feel something less than what it should. Most of the time, it wouldn’t even be there.