Thats true. The drum sound you hear in a studio during recording is pretty much the same as what you hear in a rehearsal studio, ie. pretty shitty, and then it is tweaked beyond recognition by the sound guy. The strings are also most of the time fed through compressors. That is the reason why some bands release "garage days" albums to capture the feel of how they started out, even if those releases are also mildly tweaked.
This first song on ObServant just blows me away (triggers or no triggers). The new CD is great, but I keep coming back to the a$$ kicking energy on this album...still the best from down under!