i keep seeing things like this, and I've amassed a fair bit of cheap and actually quite expensive home recording equipment now. Yet my own home recordings always sound terrible. Never quite sure why. I preferred the good old days when everybody only had 4-tracks, so everyone sounded muddy and lo-fi.

Ultimately, I think I may just have a tin ear when it comes to the "sound" of recordings. I stick a mic in front of a guitar and I think it sounds fine. I stick the mic somewhere else in the room and I think it sounds fine. I think everything sounds fine. Until I compare it to what other recordings sound like...