There are tons of things that can kill your home-studio project. A nuclear error is recording a crappy song to start with. But you also need to beware of signal-chain distortion, really awful gear (mics, preamps, etc.), format futz-ups, bad performances, “producer ego” (too many effects, too many parts, too many things the song never needed in the first place), and the brutal sprite that is fate. Here’s the part where drum tracks simultaneously become MVPs and Demons: Even when a recording manages to avoid the pitfalls listed above, it still risks death by obscurity if the drums do not punch through the mix with ferocious impact. Let me put it another way: If the drums fall into a crater of indistinct sludge, so goes your groove, and your song may follow. From a production standpoint, visualizing a mix as a complete and harmonious entity, rather than a collection of […]