and then so on, and mainly you?re looking for the groove. Often, when you?re in a studio recording a band and monitoring them, the groove is there. And then you go back a week later, and you pull up the session and sometimes it?s hard to find the groove. It?s like: ?Where the hell is it gone?? It?s all about the blend. So, with the mixes for American V and VI, I would initially start off with the guitars or whatever has the groove, and go from there. But when I started doing these mixes, Rick kept saying: ?Turn the ocal up, turn the vocal up.? This struck me, because there are several different pockets that the vocal can go in when mixing. There?s a pocket way back and thinned-out that makes the band sound louder, and then there?s the next one, which makes the band sound a little softer. But these tracks were all about the vocal. It?s all about creating a mood, and Johnny Cash?s vocals are the loudest thing on the record." The Vocal Is The Key "John?s vocal chain was the key. His voice wasn?t really strong, so I had to pump it to make it as strong as I could make it sound, and to give the impression that he sang out more than he did. So I put his vocal through a Fairchild 670 limiter and then through the Massenburg GML EQ and then back into the console. It depended on the song, but