Have you seen enough footage of these sessions to conclude the mic placement is the same? Instruments? 100% curious.
Aside from Godrich, the same people involved except this time Darrell Thorp, who assisted on Sea Change, was lead engineer. Many of his Lauten videos are not very different from setups Nigel has used. He talks a lot about being blatantly influenced by Nigel, compression wise and EQ wise - the Scheps interview, his Pure Mix videos (or whatever tutorial site he did videos for), plus a couple of other ones.
Sea Change was Ocean Way / United on the custom Bill Putnam / Dalcon desk with API EQ. Godrich mixed it, some things went to PT, but mostly off tape.
Morning Phase was a bunch of studios but Neve / API (Capitol, Sunset Sound, United) with Elmhirst mixing it on his Neve VR off of PT.
You can argue about the recording and mix process and digital vs. tape and all that but I frankly think it's crazy to think that the desk isn't the biggest influence on the sonics between those two records. I specifically brought those two up because albums recorded on the Dalcon console are so striking in their punch - the desk is very minimalist and open and it sounds like it on so many records. And those two albums are intertwined stylistically so they're a decent case study.
Maybe I should have put it by saying something like GML vs. Neve would have a pretty big impact on the end result of a record if you recorded everything with one vs. the other. I do think it's a meaningful artistic decision, though obviously not a dealbreaker. Like the slight contrast in lighting/exposure, sepia tint, technicolor, etc. between films. And I've seen many book rooms specifically with that idea in mind. Or patch around this or that specifically with that in mind.
I find it funny to say buildup doesn't create a result. Is it more felt than explicable via slew rate or whatever factor? Sure. But that's the nature of this game.
I don't think you could go back in time, record Jim Reeves in the 1950s with a Neve and have the same emotional and artistic result without those tube RCA preamps playing a part. It clearly is a part of the equation, though you do not weight it the same.
