The majority of people alive today have rarely, if ever, heard excellent music performed live in an intimate setting - the very thing which recording was originally meant to recreate. This has resulted in a decline - both in the quality of our recordings and the appreciation of quality in the listener. As professionals, eroding standards does not absolve us of our responsibility to make extremely good sounding recordings. It does just the opposite.
The ability to powerfully convey a perception of real, physical space should serve as a basic platform for more creative manipulation. It is this anchor in reality that forms an immediate emotional link to the listener and a dramatic setting for the surreal. Without this skill, the palette of an artist is severely limited; it is like an abstract painter who does not know how to draw.
Albert Einstein said, "It is appallingly obvious that our technology has exceeded our humanity". Nowhere is this more true than in the field of recording. Simultaneous to the decline of our collective ear has been the increase in our technology. But while technology has made the process of recording more convenient, it has not made our recordings sound any better than they did forty years ago. Electronic manipulation after the performance phase has become the primary focus of the recording process. But at best, electronic manipulation is a compromise. By prioritizing our efforts instead on the musician's side of the control room window - we stand the best chance of affecting those variables that will have the most influence on the final product, and reduce the amount of electronic stages required between the event and the listener.
There was a time when an audio engineer was called a balance engineer. This definition can be seen to have a layered meaning. The object is neither to be a purist nor to use technology simply because it is there. Extremism and conformism both ignore the specific requirements of the moment. Instead, the role of the engineer should be to decide what changes can be made to the myriad physical variables and the music itself - and what must be done by machine. As in all things, there is a balance.