Oh Im' with you....

about the complexity of being a sound engineer. While I don't have a lot of experience in studio recording I've got a LOT of experience doing sound checks on stages setup and run by sound engineers. I've experienced poor sound engineers, mediocre ones, and a handful of true masters because it IS rocket science, as you say.

Without any doubt the best setup I was ever fortunate enough to play with was the concert I told you about... 2 years ago? It was 4 C&W superstars... Trace Adkins, Dwight Yoakam most notable I guess. We played the same system. We had about an hour between bands to tweak the sound to us, specifically. They were amazing... I don't speak 'sound engineer' but they just 'knew' what I was getting at when requesting a certain sound. I could say something like, just an example: "I want my snare drum to mimic the snare used in "Hand in The Fire" by Clint Black and WHAM.... they had it dialed in instantly. In the hour they could also dial in presets for the various songs we played... so I could have one sound for the Clint Black song then another for a Chris LeDoux tune.

As always... the sound on stage is very different than what the audience hears.... unless you're wearing headphones but I don't like doing that. So when I heard the recording I was like "Wow, I never sounded so good".