OLD:
Back in the day the majority of my mixing consisted of 8 fingers and 2 thumbs.
I rode 16 track faders, buses, FX sends, exc with just my 2 hands. Okay sometimes I had help. But for the most part, the old way I mixed was a one shot/one off. And more often than not were great.
 
NEW:
Now in todays times, just like most people I take advantage of every new option that's thrown at me (most of them anyway).
Which leads me in to the segue of this topic: "Automation".
Im sure many of you are perfectionists like myself, not that I consider that a gift.. Its more like attention deficit disorder.
I tend to needle to death my mixes, squeeze every last perfect decibel out of them.
 
EQUALS:
Recently I was in a rush and had to do a very quick mix. I did it much the way I used to it with my hands on the control surface faders using no automation. And guess what ?
It sounded lively and spontaneous. I quickly felt this sinking disgust: IE- I've been wasting my time feeling.
I've spent 8 hours mixing a 3 minute song but now all of a sudden I feel like I could probably get equal results in 2 hours or less. Most of that time spent on EQ and Compression.
 
 

I miss that energy and "uniqueness" of a hand-made mix.  it's pretty rare these days.
 

Chuck Baby, I rarely spend more than a day on a tune, and I imagine it shows, and that will probably elicit a few "no duh" from a lot of people. 
 
I'm not saying it is good or bad, it is just my frenetic nature, so I am kind of the polar opposite of your meticulous propensity.
 
I guess what I am saying is "just because you can doesn't mean you should," and I mean that for my way too.  I was the same way with plug ins too.  All these cool exciters, compressors, gates, dessers, ad infinitum, were there at my finger tips!  I need to use them right?  Pry not.  I use them less and less.
 
Follow your heart, keep finding your magic, doing it on the fly can be just as heartless as spending the time to get the shades just right.  I really like your material, the attention to detail shows, and in this crazy upside down world, there is a place for that.
 
Sometimes you got to rock out.....................
 
JQS
 
 

Jesse Screed
Chuck Baby, I rarely spend more than a day on a tune, and I imagine it shows, and that will probably elicit a few "no duh" from a lot of people. 
 
I'm not saying it is good or bad, it is just my frenetic nature, so I am kind of the polar opposite of your meticulous propensity.
 
I guess what I am saying is "just because you can doesn't mean you should," and I mean that for my way too.  I was the same way with plug ins too.  All these cool exciters, compressors, gates, dessers, ad infinitum, were there at my finger tips!  I need to use them right?  Pry not.  I use them less and less.
 
Follow your heart, keep finding your magic, doing it on the fly can be just as heartless as spending the time to get the shades just right.  I really like your material, the attention to detail shows, and in this crazy upside down world, there is a place for that.
 
Sometimes you got to rock out.....................
 
JQS

I like your style.  Record it.  Mix it.  Move on.  Whole Beatles albums were mixed in a matter of days.  Ditto with Zep (and probably ever other band in the 60's).  And they all sold a zillion copies.  For me the bottom line: have you got a great song with a great performance?  If you do you're 99% of the way there.  Nobody ever bought a song that sucked, but had a great mix.  On the other had they did buy a great song with a mediocre mix. 

 

jude77
 Nobody ever bought a song that sucked, but had a great mix.  On the other had they did buy a great song with a mediocre mix.

 
You got that right JUDE.

Hello Moderators, can we make this a stickY?  Or can somebody put this on paper?  Or will you testify?
 
JQS

 

jude77
 Nobody ever bought a song that sucked, but had a great mix...

Seriously?  Have you listened to the radio in the last decade???  
 

Hmm, I must live in another universe, I only use automation on a few fxs busses and the odd volume knob. But I tend to use 100s of tracks lol - ok hyperbole. But I find it easier to mix this way, and I tend to write a lot of dynamics into my music.

Slugbaby
 

jude77
 Nobody ever bought a song that sucked, but had a great mix...

Seriously?  Have you listened to the radio in the last decade???  
 

HAHAHAHA!!  Point well taken.

Some awesome reply's here. Some good chuckles too.
The music in the past 10 years has been killing me. I did finally hear some I liked the other day on the radio.

 
I thought I was listening to the rebirth of Led Zeppelin and I love it.

I think, it's not the first LZ wannabe. I recall other attempts in the past: