Mike,

A general answer.
When getting into "serious" mixing:
1. Go to the Showcase site and listen, listen, listen to the
music placed there.
This alone is/was invaluable to me anyway. They do use primarily PG Music goodies.
Discount the genre when listening, many of same mix rules would apply across several genre's.

Some amount of mixes, did not care for, but reason was my listening was wrong.
You have to listen to each of the presentors individual tracks as they play thru the music.

Listened to music all my life, hence why re-learn how to listen.
Being able to pick out specific parts of the music is a great guide to your
own mix.

Also based on reading folks on the "Forums", they do give a lot of excellent advice.

Probably not a new word, but been using the word "earring". My version of how to listen
to each song and track within that song.
This is a non-stop ongoing learning process.

Also based on advice from other member purchase a very good set of "Studio" headphones.
Before this, had no idea of the difference in the Hphones.

Also having a very good quality of Monitor speakers is crucial. Based on reading forums.

The work-flow being used by folks would vary from person to person.

Here, create the music in BIAB.

Save As Wav file clicking Normalize, and also all tracks. Normalize here maybe point of contention with some folks.

From Win 7 open window containing all the music tracks, drag/drop them into RB.
You can also do this directly from BIAB.

SaveAs a raw music file upon drag and drop completion.

Then solo melody/dominant/primary track.

Then Highlight 8-10 measure of initial melody or dominant track(will call primary now on)
along with all of the music tracks.
This gives you ability to listen and listen to the mix for initial primary start.

Set primary volume level... This level usually monitor by Hphone and also the
meter on bottom of the screen.

Next add specific track/s you want to listen to one at a time. Usually here,
in initial mix use primary with one support track at a time. Gives me a grasp of
sounds.

In your case with backing tracks, probably no melody(now primary), so pick out dominant track
to mix against.

Once each track is set against the Primary track, then start adding additional
tracks. Listening adjusting levels for those track balances.

My experience in beginning was thought Bass, and drums were to dominant.
Wrong, big time, especially for dance music. That beat is extremely crucial.
Obvious to most folks here, but for newbie mixing person was not.

After repeated track combo listening step, then go to adding FX.
Lucky to own some Cakewalk Sonar products.

Add first VST plugin PG dynamics. Usually use default setting volume level to 2
sometimes bit more.

Then Add Sonitus MultiBand VST which has presets. Lot of folks may frown on this, but
gets me to reasonable sounds. Basically "medium" mastering" setting.

Then add K-meter Stereo VST, using one of its presets.

Then am avid fan of K-meter level metering. IMHO, its an outstanding tool to use.
Use Standard level setting, also peak display. Using this shoot for overall levels
about -12DB.

Adjust final output level use the big RB mixer.
At this point do save SEQ as "FilenameFX.SEQ. Active work file.
Actually do this earlier several times.

Once the sound is decent in the Hphones, take off, turn on monitors and listen some more.
Some times, bonkers on the mix sound, then go back and fix it up.

Then click Audio > Merge audio and vsti/dxi tracks to stereo.

Then play result thru the Monitor speakers.
Sometime go back to RB and redo offtrack parts. Pun intended.

As you already know with your work, there are many, many in between steps that
will be needed.
One example is again IMHO, add Reverb to "Some" individual tracks as wanted.
Happen to use Sonitus Reverb with short and sweet preset. Especially for piano
and picked guitar.

This answer is long, but should be some tidbits that may help.

Flaw learned from this forum and also hard way is....Each device music is played on
and listened too will sound different.

An Old guy who loves music...Good Luck.

Now you all know the ??? methods I use.

Last edited by seeker; 04/09/14 12:23 PM.
FrankB

Down The Street vs2015 12-03-2014
Win7, AMD QuadA8-5500,16GB,2TeraHD, Komplete 10
PG Ultra Plus 2016,Alesis 12USB, Sonar Platinum