I've yet to have a chance to see Spafford live. They're coming to Boston in October - likely will then. I have listened to quite a bit of their officially recorded audio and that's what this post is about.

I've never heard such amazing clarity and separation from all the instruments in live recordings before. I used to put Phish and UM at the top of the live recording engineering dept but Spafford just takes it to a new level.

So I'm curious - I'm a novice when it comes to recording and setting up FOH sound. What gives their recordings such clarity? Does that level of clarity exist in the room when they play live? Is it the amount of compression put on the instruments? If it's compression is it self applied (I know Brian and Jordan both have pedals in their FX chain) or is it mainly applied at the mixing board?

Thanks in advance for any discussion from people more astute in this area than I am.