~ Mixing Tips / Best Practices ~
1
Avoid applying excessive compression, keep your track elements sounding open, natural and dynamic.
2
Avoid too many tracks as phase problems also build up, besides making it harder to clear the clutter and bring clarity in hearing all elements across the sound stage.
3
Avoid referencing your mixes on different speakers, that’s what masters are for. Instead, learn your listening space well and make informed decisions. One can surely bring in reference mixes to the same session.
4
Avoid excessive low end, although exotic to the ears, but that is eventually when played on consumer speaker systems with a bass boost, not when producing.
5
Avoid any master bus processing, create sub mixes instead. This will also help you keep a check on the levels and monitor your master fader out levels faithfully.
6
Turn normalize off when bouncing your projects & Listen in mono to check for frequency build ups.
7
Use subtractive eqing instead of additive, this actually helps train your ear even to find offensive frequencies or buildups, rather than just additive eq’ing.
8
Avoid using too many reverbs, as it sounds incoherent in terms of the spaces the sounds manifest in and actually makes it a little disconcerting to hear.