ITB Mix/Masters - does anyone send out to analog finalizers/vitalizers?

But still when A/Bing to the big names I lack that "life" in the audio.

I doubt rendering it in the analog realm will fix this issue.  Fixing this may start in the recording phase and will carry into the mixing stage. If its lifeless, then you may need to use other recording and mixing techniques. But basically, this starts in the recording stage and carries over to the mixing and mastering stage.
 
CJ

Semantics - I don't know exactly what you mean.  Outboard won't fix what I call lifeless (btw, the finalizer is a digital unit, tho w/ good ADDA convertors).

However, passing material through good analog hardware and recording it back to your project can help jell, glue or whatever buzz word is acurrant today.  Just as recording through good equipment can add that last few percentage points of goodness to a file, passing it back out through a good analog comp/eq or channel strip can give a taste of mixing through a console.  In fact, SOS's Hugh R. has said several times that just passing a stereo signal through a line mixer works as well as stems and channels.  Passing a signal through transformers and all the other good electronics is how we expect music to sound.  It won't fix a mix, but can help finalize a good one.

Just don't expect to hear a quantom jump, or expect to get anything out of a $100 mixer etc. except less 3D soundstage and a more restriced sound.

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I couldn't say what the lowest priced analog that gives you tone is.  I know in tape op somebody wired some transformers in line and was amazed what it did.  After all that work I'm sure I'd hear a difference, too.  But you usually have to spend money.

I know that once I started running my mixes hard through a pair of Komit compressors I heard a difference, but that is compression and limiting.  Those are the original hand-built models from Burgen/McDaniels.  On softer songs sometimes I ran it too hard and ballad voices got a little too hirsute via saturation, which is not what you want.  But otherwise, a little saturation and thickening is a good thing.

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