Anyone who's been around me for the last few months probably knows what's on my mind. I have a big mouth and I usually mull over aloud the topics that make up these 'end rants' for a while until they gel in such a way that I can go forward and write the darn thing. As I've been formulating this one I probably bent the ears of too many clients, friends, students, and TapeOpCon attendees.
What is the one thing that separates great engineers and producers from the teeming hordes? These days it's so easy to go out and purchase a pile of recording gear that can do a great job of recording many tracks of high quality sound, with fairly clean preamps and affordable mics that do the job well. So why do I hear so many shitty sounding home recordings? And why do I always strive for better-sounding recordings when I'm working and cry when I hear how good the new Grandaddy record sounds next to the stuff I track?
It's all down to critical listening. If you don't know what to listen for you won't hear what you need to do. Ever wonder why some musicians are better than others? Because they listen, and they listen well. A great musician usually hears their instrument for what it really is — pitch, timbre, timing and feel — plus they also hear the musicians around them and place their own contributions in ways that only make the music better as a whole. A lesser musician will be certain their pitch is right, because their finger is on the right fret, and that the tone is fine because it worked at the gig.