Not so much "narrow minded" as maybe...I dunno. People that are saying that taking a DI and then reamping "against what the band wants" is a bad thing to do...well...they just haven't learned yet. You can have the most killer drum, bass and vocal sound of all time, but if the guitars blow because the dude LOVED his shitty amp then the fact that the drums, bass and vocals rocked doesn't even matter. People in this world (recording, mixing, etc.) listen to music a *whole* lot differently than Joe Listener. We are critical when it comes to the production quality of a record. Something that your average listener, or musician for that matter, might never really catch (production wise) will stick out like a sore thumb to us.
As an engineer a big part of your job is not a general "do the best with what they give you"...it's way more complicated than that, especially these days. Now it's more like "do the best with what YOU know and can do ABOUT what they give you". Which means if the drummer blows and/or his kit is horrendous, you need to trigger it and replace the sounds. If a vocalist can't hit notes, you need to pitch correct the tracks. If the guitar sounds like ass, you need to reamp or at the very least get them to use a good amp that you have or that you/they can borrow. Why feel bad about reamping? All you are doing is providing them with the best sound possible for them that you can come up with. I don't see why anybody would be pissed/upset/disappointed about that. I'm sorry but if a band insists they use their shitty gear, they're just fucking dumb. Nobody, and I mean absolutely nobody, in their right mind wants shitty tone, shitty drums or vocals that are off pitch. That's just retarded.
Besides all that, I'll be fucking damned if I let something with my name on it as the engineer/producer leave sounding a certain way when I could've easily just done something about it (reamping, pitch correction, drum replacement).
~e.a
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