Mixing and Mastering Workflow

Looking for workflow suggestions / examples for mixing and mastering in Sonar X3. I am coming to the end of the recording and editing phase of an EP and before I embark on the mixing phase I figured I would get some input. How do you all handle the different phases? In the past i have done everything right in the same project I recorded in but it seems like it would be a good idea to fresh start for the mixing.
 
I have looked around a bit on the forum but couldn't find a thread (even though I'm pretty sure I read one a couple years back) so even a link to where this has already been covered would be fine.
 
Thanks
 

You'll find there are a variety of views on how to proceed.
 
Many people would recommend that you freeze all of your soft synths and save to anew project so you are working purely with audio, while others just carry on in the same project without bouncing or freezing anything.
 
Personally I fall into the latter camp as I know from experience that my computer can easily handle the extra burden of mixing plugs along with "live" midi clips.
 
There is a case for freezing SS's at some point, simply to avoid future redundancy in the case of a particular synth no longer being available. This will never be the case with pure audio.

I tend to make very distinct seperations in my workflow . The simple version is:
 
1) Tracking/composing. All recording of instruments ( acoustic and virtual) and voices
2) pre-mix prep. This would include fixing things like noise issues if re-recording is not practical. I now include the initial parts of my gain staging here.
3) Mixing. If all went as planned in steps 1 and 2, it should practically mix itself. Doesn't always work that way but when it does the decisions I make at this point come down to rotely carrying out the obvious combined with creative preferences.  My goal here is to get to a point where an amatuer would feel it sounded mastered.
4) Mastering. If it is feasible I have someone do the mastering seperately in a different location. I know some just make a mastering bus and if that works for them I won't knock it. For me, I feel that my ears already feel it's "correct" and any "mastering" I do is likely just reinforcing any mistakes I may have made. When I do my own mastering I still try to do it with fresh ears at different location. I mostly master in sound forge and occasionally  T-racks. I find the hip-hop/pop/rnb crowd like the results when i use t-racks