Ditto to everything "silvertones" said.

Mixing is an ART. The only way to do it well is through experience. LOTS of experience. This is something no one can do for you . . . you just have to put in the hours. A "mix" is a personal expression of the mixing engineer. You can give all the individual tracks to a song to 20 mixers and you'd end up with 20 different mixes of the song.

There are a millions of tips and tricks, do's and don'ts. But remember, none of them are "rules". You have to continually keep evolving as you gain experience. That means a lot of trial and error and lots of experimenting. You don't want to get stagnant with your mixing method. Stagnation leads to songs that sounds the same.

LISTEN to the SONG. Do what the song is asking for. 75% of the time required for mixing is listening time. Listen for whats needed. What ever you think about doing, you should always let your ears make the final decision . . . weather to keep the change or not? . . . did the change add or detract from the mix? . . . etc.

I try to mix dry first. If the mix sounds good dry, I usually need less "effects" . . . but thats just me.

Its almost impossible to "talk" about sound without hearing it in the same room.

Trust your ears.

Ed

www.pointconceptionstudio.com