The Stranger Music Quarterly you have in your hands focuses on Seattle producers/engineers who've made an impact. Why? Well, because former music editor Jeff DeRoche had already washed his hands of the job and I hadn't arrived in town yet. That's when our editor-in-chief stepped in and named this special music issue "The Producers," in a sly attempt to force the music section to cover musical theater--which I really can't get excited about, at least until something like the Axl Rose song and dance White Trash Wins Lotto hits the Northwest. We managed to thwart our editor's will by profiling a handful (and I'm emphasizing the word handful so there's no complaining that we skipped over what's-his-nuts and ignored who's-his-face--there just wasn't room to get everybody in) of very skilled local fixtures, gave some of our own recording advice (follow at your own risk), and threw in some other stuff too. We even let our editor write a few words about The Producers, the smash-hit Broadway musical that no one in Seattle gives a shit about... but he does, so he got to write about it. JENNIFER MAERZ