<snip> > I guess the big question is where I, as a recording musician > interested primarily in the songs themselves, not aspiring to be an > audio engineer of any kind, should draw the line, in terms of > trying to persue perfection from an engineering standpoint. > > Frankly, I think there is too much emphasis on the production > quality of music these days anyway. I would like to hear a lot more > music with second rate audio quality and the highest levels of > originality, soul and character. <snip> I need to figure out > what's realistic for me and my budget and know when to stop > worrying about it. Ben let your ears, and even more your heart and your spirit (seriously), guide you I think you are on exactly the right track keep your focus on the soul of the music consider the sound improved if it grabs you by the guts more and degraded if it somehow loses some of its edge, immediacy, feel for me, on a lot of tracks, there is a sweet spot in applying master stage limiting where detail is brought up, where transients squashed have a slightly more explosive character, where the sense of aliveness, dynamism is optimized beyond that and you enter the 'bag of wool' zone - nothing is differentiated, everything is maxed fatiguing to listen to something has been lost below that things can feel thin, anemic, especially by comparison to ALL of the music being squeezed out today by major and most independent labels find your own sweet spot - where the MUSICALITY is maximized - and trust it I also think that you are right that there is a significant difference between how we hear music live - our ears search and find detail, bring it up, attenuate transients (effectively compress/limit psycho-acoustically) - and how we hear it recorded, in a 'home listening' setting - our ears are much more passive - we expect that C/L done for us - we don't automatically hunt and peck and squash - that feels like too much of an effort, we are almost offended to be asked to make it I use VW2 plenty it can be useful and effective in many applications and counter-indicated in others again, trust your ears I agree with the advice to feed it less level let your highest peaks going in be -3dB max but again trust yourself you seem to have a balanced attitude and your priorities are better in place than most pros I know enjoy your freedom to keep the music music good luck -- Rolf Pechukas Bulk Dump Sound Leverett, MA