Byron Dickens

No one told Stevie Wonder about that. Or Prince. Or Phil Collins. Or Paul McCartney. Or John Fogerty. Lenny Kravitz. Dave Grohl.....

+ 1 Too much editing sucks the life out of a performance.

Have it. Have used it. Works for me.

The quickest way to get a million dollars in the music biz is to start out with two million.

Move away from the mike and use a pop filter.

It's all a bunch of superstition and it's bad luck to be superstitious.

IK has their mic room as well.

I don't think I would really want to open any of my old projects. ?

Ummm....

Why in God's name would you downgrade a Focusrite to a SoundBlaster? That would be like those idiots who take an $80K Mercedes S Class to the home, home, home of the $1 install to have some bootleg, BS car stereo scotchlocked in when the dang car COMES FROM THE FACTORY with a $2600 surround sound system that is custom designed for it. FWIW, I have no problems whatsoever with my 18i20. If you gave some information as to the nature of your issues, someone here might be able to help. Could be something as simple as a flaky USB cable.

Two words: Turbo Tax. And to make this thread music related:

Volume knob?

Not to be an ass, but using 10 year old, obsolete, unsupported software for starters. Aside from that, without more Information and possibly an example, we are all really left guessing.

I don't understand what in God's name makes a guitar worth 7 grand in the first place.

Record executives make lawyers and politicians look absolutely saintly by comparison.

Two words: room treatment. I'm surprised no one mentioned that yet. Until you have an at least somewhat accurate listening environment to mix in, it's like starting the marathon an hour after every one else does.

8.5?!?

Whenever I am gonna buy something new (I prefer to get most things used), they are my first choice.

Reiterating what has been said more than once already, having an audio example would be real helpful. It's about like calling up your mechanic and saying " My check engine light is on. What's wrong with my car?" Oh, any one or more of about a thousand different things.

What does "treated" mean? Broadband bass traps and a combination of HF absorption and diffusion or just some foam stuck on the wall?

I can't really speak to the vocals so much; what I'm most familiar with tends to have them kind of buried anyway. Try this: go back to your drum track. Lower the velocity of the hi hat on every other eighth note a very small amount. Then raise it just a tiny bit on the one of every measure. Then select all the snare hits and nudge them just barely to the right so they are just behind the beat. Now, take the bass part and nudge it slightly to the left so it is right on the leading edge of the beat. Try it and see how that sounds.

You're missing the point. It's a figure of speech. See, what separates Eric Clapton's guitar playing from mine is not that he has his own Fender Custom Shop signature model and I only have a Made in Mexico Strat. No, what separates Eric Clapton's guitar playing from mine is that he's Eric Clapton and I'm not.

Send me your MIDI file. I'll prove to you that it ain't the guitar, it's the guitarist.

Here: Not a single "real" instrument. Nor a single real performance. Whatever you might think of the piece, I don't think the words "sterile" or "lifeless" apply. Like it or hate it, it breathes and moves.

I'm not trying to start a fight or anything. You asked how to breathe life into a dull and lifeless mix. The only way to do that is to - well, to breathe some life into it. There ain't a VST in the world - free or paid - that will do that. No one makes a "soul" plugin.