With all deference to your professional accomplishments, by which I am very well overshadowed, Mr. Pope:
Personally, most of the time, I use almost no EQ at all.
I find this an amazing statement from a man who designs and builds EQ/pre-amps. I applaud you in your honesty!
This is true, imo too, but you can't separate the feel from the sound. Feel is really all about sound.
Exactly wrong and exactly right at the same time. (For me paradox is the universal constant attached to all value. Sorry if that's a bit heady for some.)
Sound affects feel, there is no doubt, but feel transcends particular sound, IMHO. It is the X factor which cannot be denied nor explained. It is what makes a musician great, regardless of the particular instrument his greatness is expressed through. Since we are speaking of music OF COURSE there must be sound (and silence, too, just to add to that paradox) present for the feel any particular great musician might impart as his/her personal greatness. However, the greatness they have shines through even in the case of expression through the poorest of instruments. (We will for the moment forgo conversations about how much the individual affects tone of an individual instrument and assume that the full potential tonality a particular type of instrument may produce is not available from all samples of that type of instrument.)
A good 50 years ago one of Dad's friends was a Gibson (or maybe Gretsch) endorser. He and his wife traveled as a lounge duo across the country (The Lemonaides. Anybody know them? If so PM me. I'd love to know what happened to the cocktail drum Dad built for her.). When they were in town they came to our house for drinks before Mom & Dad went to see them perform. I wanted to hear him play. There was a real piece of crap guitar in the house, but he took the challenge of it and just threw down some amazing music. Tonally? Horrible might be generous given the guitar in his hands. Feel? In spades.
Take a theoretical example. Do you really think the sound of Elvin Jones tapping a tin box could deny the feel he used to create musical history?
Although, it does get taken to a point of splitting hairs that nobody cares about.
And that is precisely my point. Quite honestly, I think it may for some become as much ego as it is genuine expression. "This is 'MY' tone!"
For me, the music always comes first. That's why audiophile quality speaker systems are lost on me. If I can hear the music enough to feel it, well that's enough for me. It isn't that I don't care about sound quality at all. Certainly I like a decent sounding speaker set, but decent is enough to feel the music and that's what I seek.
I come from a different era when monitors on stage were almost unheard of and IEMs were, AFAIK, actually unheard of. I was lucky to be able to hear the sax at the opposite end of the horn line, let alone his finest nuances, when everyone was blowing. We still kicked butt. We knew what feel we were playing to.
Still, no excuse to not strive for excellence as long as you don't go gray over it.
I will never be the one to say that one's best effort should not be put forth. I will say, however, that just as Persig found, at some point one must reach the point of saying good enough lest it drive him over the edge. As you say, don't go gray over it.
When it comes to tonal quality, for many it seems the splitting of hairs becomes the object more than great music. That's where I'll get off the bus, thank you.
iJazz - Let's twist up some greatness has several meanings.
