Jerry Douglas on stage vs. studio playing, 2002

"The studio is a different place to play music than the stage. You’re not getting feedback from the audience. Every note you play is under a microscope, but the cool thing about it is, you get more chances if you need them. It goes both ways: I know a lot of recording musicians who say, 'Oh, I can’t play in a band in a live situation--I am just not good at it.' And with a lot of road musicians, you get them in the studio and you start hearing things that you didn’t hear live—maybe some rough edges, a lot of noise, things that you just can’t do in the studio.

"It depends on what kind of music you are playing, I guess, but if you are trying to be smooth and you’re trying to fit into a track, you want to really listen to other people and try to play as cleanly as possible. Try to put the best thing on tape that you can with a low noise ratio. And that’s really hard for a lot of people who come in and don’t know how to sit in front of a microphone, who’ve never played in a band situation sitting down or with headphones on. If you want a consistent sound on your instrument or on your vocal, you can’t be jumping around like you’ve got an SM58 in your hand onstage."

From the book The Complete Singer-Songwriter: A Troubadour's Guide to Writing, Performing, Recording, and Business