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I think that's a lesson I'm really slow in learning but you're totally right. The best sounding acoustic records are imo the ones where the recording process is as transparent as possible - you make the fewest decisions and you make as many of them as you can correctly.
It's hard in my thing where I'm trying to blend acoustic with digital / processed sounds, which has almost the exact opposite philosophy - usually the harder you graft on a processed track the better it sounds. But if you do that on an acoustic take it almost invariably ends up sounding unnatural and sucky. I listen to my last record and cringe at the overly boosted top end in the percussion. Always learning.
ReekBlefs
That is supercool. God I wish I knew more about that world. I know it doesn't count as production as in the beat-making which most in this thread are to be into, but I have been recording again.
Following the demise of my live band in December I took a bit of time off to lick wounds, have a bit of a re-think and examine exactly what it is I want to do next. The bottom line is that I want/need to continue writing and recording music. I've decided to try and get some new and hopefully interesting collaborative projects off the ground but i'm also going to spend some time capturing the best live solo performances of a whole raft of new and previously unrecorded material.
To that end I've been giving some thought to the elements over which I have control in these seemingly simple productions, namely:
I was forced to buy Logic X following an OS update killing off 9 which was a bit of a bummer because it meant I lost all of my Softube 16 bit plugs including my go-to compressor, the CL-1B. I've still got a huge Waves bundle though and seem to be getting my head round the new interface in X. The "new" (not new at all is it?) EQs and compressors in X are actually great too.
Hopefully giving some real attention to all of these elements is going to yield results i'm happy with. I always go for as natural and un-processed sound as possible as my ultimate goal so learning to manage gain staging and lay off the heavy EQ and gain reduction has been an education so far. It's something I always kinda knew anyway but had, I think, grossly underestimated in my previous attempts at after-the fact turd-polishing.