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I feel u John. I'm starting to get kinda up in years myself. Just a suggestion, have u ever tried yelling at clouds? I find it therapeutic. Esp when they're dropping that stupid rain all over my lawn. Give it try. After all, those fluffy bastards have it coming 😠

Hi John. Just to make sure we're on the same page, the Uphoria/umc series does have the Midas pre's. I don't know if they always did but they do now. If u look up the umc204(like I have), umc404, etc, you'll see "Midas Preamp" written below the XLR inputs. And ur right, they sound awesome. I'm not even tempted to try a Scarlett or other. To each his own of course but for $119, I think it's a steal. Cheers my friend 😉

Hi Jenna. I really love my Behringer U-Phoria(umc204). It's only $119. Before that, I had two diff Presonus interfaces and both gave me driver connectivity issues. The UMC range has a true ASIO driver(connected like butter), great sounding & quiet preamps, loud headphone out, and good build quality. If u dont need the midi, the umc202 is even cheaper. If u need more than two inputs, they have the 404 and above. Anyway, I couldn't be happier with it. There's of course youtube demos of it if ur interested. Cheers & Good Luck! 😉

Nice job Mark. Im a huge Frampton fan. It reminds me of some of his early solo stuff. With a few Jazz chords to give it class and a smooth, fat solo guitar sound. Well done 😉

Thanks Bill. I know Neutron 4 Elements is free right now(until July 8 I believe) and I think it has audiolens. But yeah, in a recent post here they were mentioning that the Izotope products are CPU intensive. Im prob still gonna give it a try but I'm not getting my hopes up cause Im working with a humble pc(i5 2nd gen, 3.10 ghz, 16 gb ram). I guess it's worth a try but I know the first time it starts popping & cracking... It's going bye bye. Great advice though 😉

Very cool. Btw, I live just outside New Orleans. Jimmy was considered a local here. He started his career here & never lost his love for the city. I saw him at Jazz Fest once and it was a blast. God rest him 🍹

No, I appreciate that John. I know it's hard to know exactly what sound someone else is after. Btw, that one piano sound is all I use the TTS1 for and thankfully u guys taught me that its from the Roland Soundcanvas. So when the TTS1 does die, at least I know where to get it. Other than that, I think u'll miss the TTS1 more than me. I know u've discovered some other players, is the TTS1 still ur go-to?

Cheers John. I know the TTS1 isnt the best but I believe my stellar, prodigy-like piano playing makes up for it. Have u ever heard of Mozart, Beethoven, Bach?... I make em all sound like they have arthritis! No seriously, I do have some great(though still free) piano vsts. Like the Soniccouture Hammersmith. That one sounds amazing with pedal noise and everything. However(& Ive mentioned this in a past post) there's a certain consistency & upper mid chime to the TTS1 Piano 1 that I really like in the mix. I find that the more realistic & rich pianos aren't always what the track wants. Esp the ones that are so realistic that theyre slightly out of tune or one key has a deader attack than the others. And although I'm no wizard piano player I do think I have a good touch. And to me, that's the real key. Writing great songs and playing with feeling is what's most important. But I know u already know that. Now, stop raggin on my TTS1 John! 😠

Cheers Duncan. Glad u messaged back bud. My song is mainly piano driven(tts1 btw) with left & right acoustic guitars, Slate drum kit, lead & backing vocals & the SI strings. Yeah to clarify, it's not a real cello. I meant the left hand part/bass range of the SI strings. Btw, u gave some great advice on how to make room in the low end but yeah, I kinda took the easy way out and killed the bass guitar. Esp when I realized that panning the cello part anywhere other than center sounds silly. Now what I did do is I went back in my midi piano parts and made the left hand part more interesting. So it sounds like a real, independent bass line. However, since it's being played on piano, it sounds more like an acoustic bass line. That's why I mentioned mtv unplugged. It has that kinda vibe. Btw, I'll def check out Lyle Lovett again. I used to watch him on Austin City Limits all the time. Great voice & great writer. Not to mention, he hooked up with Julia Roberts. That alone makes him a genius! 😁

I appreciate all the good advice guys. I'm gonna try the CD route. My daughter has a bunch of my old CD's. There's bound to be a couple songs in the ballpark of my mix. Thanks a lot. Cheers!

I feel u yeah Duncan. Btw, Im a 53 yr old lifelong songwriter too. Lars Ulrich was 100% right to fight against Napster and every other artist shoulda fought too. I dont blame the Eagles, Prince, Floyd etc for blocking their music at all. Also, I can see how the way I worded my post could cause a knee jerk reaction but I'm not trying to hustle the system my friend. So far Ive purchased 9 songs to mix one track and I'll prob never listen to those downloads again. I don't even have itunes on my phone. Im just looking for a better way to go about this at least until I know more of what to look for in a reference track. Cheers my friend and oh btw... Lighten Up! 😄

Thanks. That's what's been a bit of a challenge is my song is pretty unique. I ended up not using bass guitar because my piano(left hand) & cello take up a lot of that low end. It kinda sounds like an Mtv Unplugged acoustic thing. Which I love too. But yeah, finding the right reference has been a lil tricky. Esp since I'm learning this stuff for the first time. Oh well, I figure some trial & error is to be expected.

Thanks John. Yeah, Im just trying to get in the ballpark as well as learn my speakers.

Thanks for saying it. Again, I'm happy with just a 30 sec sample of a song. Also, as I alluded to in my orig post, the problem is having to try multiple references to find the right one. I'm happy to pay for the one song I end up using but I can't keep paying for all the ones that dont work out along the way. Btw, In the late 90's, I helped write the software for Napster. (Don't tell Duncan 🤫)

Hi guys. I'm just learning to mix and I'm realizing that the first reference track I try usually isn't the best. And I cant afford to keep buying songs from itunes. How can I get song MP3s(even if it's just partial songs/samples) into Cakewalk to use as a reference? Btw, I'm no computer wiz so I'm hoping there's a relatively straight forward(easy 😉) method. Thanks!