Quote Originally Posted by DSP
clean production hands down. it shows the ability of the producer. it's easy to cover up a shitty mixdown/eq work with distortion or trying to sound big and powerful with volume rather than with dynamics and skill. mind you, you have the other side of the coin when it's too clean and you have lazy producers claiming to "sustain the purity of the sound and the soul" piss off, i came to hear music and not another rehashing of a dry Roland box. so like others have said, there's a balance that needs to be had.
Very true!
Distortion on top of the whole mix = no dynamics