I will try and give the Cliff notes version of what is essentially a 900 page book to answer this question. Some of it is complementary to what has been said.

The "Holy Grail" concept in mixing is to understand and master the EQ nuances and behaviors of every instrument you plan to use. There are shortcuts. For example, you can buy the "CLA" pack from Waves which has plugin-ins and presets for most instruments. And/or you can buy Neutron Elements from Izotope which will analyze your tracks and make EQ suggestions and give you presets. Neutron is good for toning and shaping, but to get the beef, you need plugins like you will find in the CLA collection to amp it up, compress, add echo, reverb, etc. Not selling CLA by Waves but you can google it and see what is in the package and read about all the plugins. That will educate you on what instrument-specific plugins will do, including those for vocals.

The point is you could spend a month on each instrument just figuring out what gear and presets you need and what you need to buy to get a great sound out of:

1. Drums
2. Bass
3. Acoustic Guitars
4. Electrics
5. Brass
6. Strings
7. Wind Instruments


All of these require VERY unique EQ'ing skills that you must master. Think of it this way: you have to master the EQ-ing of these instruments just as well as the musician has mastered playing them or your mix will sound like mud.

This will take years. But here is what I would do. I would start with this forum (if you are using PG Music products) and pick one month to focus on say, acoustic guitars.

Research the art of EQ-ing an acoustic in a mix. See what you have in your pantry. Add what you don't have. You may find that it is easier to spend $69 on a one-stop CLA package than hunt forever and buy 500 VSTs. (Like I am one to talk.)

Anyway, after you think you have a good acoustic sound, put the song out here for a listen and ask for suggestions specific to the the acoustic. Let people be blunt. Take all you have learned and keep working until you are an acoustic Eqing genius.

Then move on to another instrument. Plan to spend a year mastering the art of getting a good sound out of each one.

The rest is easy.

Drums are usually loudest, bass hugs the drum line, other instruments panned and slightly down, vocals about 1 to 1.5 dBs over top of the bed. DO NOT rely on speakers. Learn to trust your RMS and loudness meters. Your ears will be shot after an hour of mixing but meters always know what's going on.

When it is done, however, put on a good set of headphones and trust your EARS for the final tweaks. When it sounds like butter and honey you are done. When you have a great mix you will know it.

Leave yourself plenty of headroom, and polish it off with a mastering plugin like Ozone on the gentler settings.

Again, this takes several hours of study a day for about a year and a LOT of research.

But there are lots of folks here who know what they are doing who can help you out.

David Snyder
Songwriter/Renaissance Man
Studio + Fingers

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