I have a friend who was in a relatively successful alternative band, before "alternative" became a marketing phrase. After the band broke up, one day he walked into Atlantic and talked them into giving them his own label and about a $10 million budget.
It stiffed. But what an amazing rap this guy had. Balls of steel.
I currently have a friend (Ross knows who I'm talking about), who is a talented guy, but has relatively little experience behind a console compared to most of us. He, through sheer force of his personality, has talked himself into getting more work or representation in one year than you can believe. And it's not because of his track record or his music, so much as it is that he just makes you believe that he's the guy you should hire.
That is a talent that I envy.
However, this friend doesn't pretend to be a jedi master or have a mystical audio aura around him. I really admire his guts.
A lot of people who know me have described me as a "mad scientist", but it's not some persona I'm feigning. That's just me. In fact, it never occurred to me to think of myself that way until at least five people used that term to describe me. But hey, maybe I should shroud that in some cryptic mystique and convince people that nobody can make a good record without using my secret mad scientific knowledge.
My policy is that you should always associate yourself with people who know more and are more talented than yourself, so you never get too big headed. I can't honestly thiunk of myself as a mad scientist when I have Kehew around. One of the reasons I came to these forums was that I was using a different forum and apparently, I seemed to have the most experience there, which was scary. I like being where I know there are people like Terry, William, Bob and Ross who, while not necessarily being more talented than me (just kidding!), have years and years more experience from which I can learn. And I love the fact that they share their knowledge freely with us younger guys.
BTW, as far as phony faders go, I love when I mispatch something and I'm turning knobs and moving faders and hearing the difference, even when nothing is happening. That's the bummer about ProTools. You don't have fake faders for the producer or the band to play with.