It’s all too easy to fall into a trap of thinking your favorite engineers hear everything in brilliant color while you hear everything in black and white. That’s not the case. There are at least two distinct possibilities.
One reason is you just don’t know what to listen for. But it’s a shame because I don’t think anybody else is going to tell you this. While you’re agonizing because you can’t tell the difference between these attack and release times, it’s entirely possible you may not hear it because it just doesn’t matter.
The difference between what I hear and what you hear is that you’re turning this and waiting for it to sound better. Whereas I’m aware of a thing that needs to change and I know when it changes or if it doesn’t. So before you start obsessing over the position of some knob, ask yourself if what it’s supposed to sound like when it finds its way home.
If you can’t hear a difference, there may not be one.
