But a pristine version of Little Wing would be the best, would it not?  Yes, the notes matter more than the plugins, but our notes are already great, the best really, tremendous notes, the biggest and best notes, yuge notes..and we need the best, unbelievably great and very very special plugins to do them justice.  
 
 

Just trying to make music great again Tobias, ha ha

sharke
I think the point is that great music is great music no matter what, but that well produced great music is a better listening experience than poorly produced great music. 

Hard to argue with that :) 

Pure and simple is the way I like it most of the time. On some music I go with only enough enhancement to bring out the closest sound of the live performance but other times it’s turned out that enhancements become a defining part of the music. Each project is so different for me. My concern is for the sound I want for the song so whatever that takes is the way I go no matter what plugin sample effect etc is used

Beepster
RE: "qulity"
 
Subtle yet chuckle worthy.
 
*golf clap*

It's totally simple. When you record, you usually try to record as well as you can, especially if you're a professional.
Manufacturers struggle to produce the tools for ultimate sound quality. It does not undermine the value of music recorded in challenging conditions or with modest equipment. The music and feeling is what matters.

i love the old punk recordings noise and all

"Is sound qulity REALLY that important?"
 
absolutely.
 
otherwise, everybody and their brother's recordings would be just as good as the best.
 
and they're not.
 

 

well, i say, 'to each his own'......
 
but a really well written, well performed, well captured and mixed song,
is always going to catch my attention more than a killer garage band with a recording that sounds like it was in a garage.
 
 
that's why all the really killer classic rock recordings still stand today.
 
you should always strive for the very best end result you are capable of.

Team Green
So like if a tree falls... I mean like if you're in the forest and there's no sound... well it's something like that anyway !!!!

 
That's what's so funny about that zen thing.  You start off the sentence saying the tree fell....it's pretty obvious the tree actually fell unless it's fake news?

I have a record "and the disk" called more of Bob Marley at his best, tons of noise but it grooves so hard, Trench Town Rock is a killer song i've seen pictures of Marley and Peter Tosh recording in a studio. some of those Jamaican studio's are bare bones like wooden shipping crate's cut in half and lined with foam rubber as a vocal room.. but the music has a sound that just moves...

jimmyrage music
I wouldn't think too many average listeners would care too much about listening to distorted phone recording of a number one hit.

There are countless phone-shot over-compressed and distorted videos on youtube to prove exactly the opposite.

I love just crusty, insane, completely unmarketable freakshow type bands and although it's not all I do I certainly enjoy creating that style myself.
 
I have been listening to absolutely sh*te quality demos and semi "pro" recordings for over twenty years now and never ONCE have I thought that (in the context of those sh*tty recordings) that the recording would not be more enjoyable if only it had been produced better.
 
I am a huuuuuuuuge Dead Kennedy's fan. They are pretty much my favorite band musically.
 
Their production values were always horrendous and they went from one extreme to the next. The early stuff (which I prefer) was clippy, distorted, fizzy and generally fatiguing to the ear... BUT the bass and drum interaction cuts through so well (an example of good musicianship) that it makes it sound kind of balanced and if you turn down the "tone" knob the ear peircing high end can be tolerated.
 
THEN for I think "Frankenchrist" they glommed onto that really crisp late 80's/early 90's production style with the digital reverb and all the warmth scooped out. A lot of punk bands got sucked into that crappy sound because I think the engineers at the time just figured "Well this is heavy music... let's treat it like a metal album" except that style of mixing didn't work for punk (and barely worked for very specific types of metal).
 
I try to listen to those "metalfied" tunes and just can't.
 
And that was the friggen' DK's who had access to half decent studios, engineers and gear.
 
I've got stuff where you can barely discern half the crap that's going on (audio pulled from crappy boards that only the vox are going through, video cam audio, zooms/ghetto blasters setup somewhere recording, whatever).
 
I can still enjoy that stuff if I REALLY know the material because my brainoodle fills in the blanks between things coming in and out of focus (in the mic's "eye") but ya, no... I'd rather hear it clearly.
 
It matters.

Jarsve
I think that EQ and compressors are just a little bit of the picture on sound. If you have a keyboard you bought for $300 in the 90s and you try to make decent music with that, even Bach wont sound good. I had one of those, and i did make music with it. Thank God for Native Instrument and the like.
 

I've got an original release Yamaha DX-7 that hasn't worked since I moved here. It USED to work perfectly so it's likely a very cheap/simple repair (it's all modular boards inside but I think it just needs a new memory battery/contact cleaning). I thought it was kind of a cool curiosity to have around AND I intended to use it as a MIDI controller but I'd trade the thing in a second for a simple lightweight 88 key USB MIDI controller.
 
If I REALLY wanted those old FM sounds I'm sure I could find them in VSTi format.