Preparing a Client Mix

DJ Darkside
Definitely! I also ask for the client to send reference songs that I can work towards the sound they are after or at least get close.
 
The reason for this reason post is to get fine details about how people set up their mixes:

• Their gain inputs and outputs.  - If I am doing the recording, each individual signal is trimmed as hot as possible wthout ever clipping at the loudest points.  I'll ask folks to sing/scream/play as loud and as hard as they are going to play during the course of the song and set their trim at that point.  
• How to prevent clippings from clipping - if step one was done right, I get no track level clips anywhere.  "If" there were ever a point where there was a clip....as long as its not extreme, it can be fixed.  A quick digital pop from a drum hit peaking for example can easily be removed without notice with a good crackle reducer plugin.  Lots out there that seem to work well.   Each plugin has the input or output gain adjusted to make sure that the track does not get any louder or peak any higher from one to the next.  So, after 0 plugins or 10 plugins, its still going to sound as loud as the source material.  It may very well peak lower now though after some compression has squashed some of the transients.
• What levels the meters should be peaking at - as I was stating earlier, Im not looking for an initial level balance between instruments.  I want every individual track to peak at -1.  All those peaks are the transient material.  those initial hits and impacts and what have you.  Im primarily a rock and metal guy, so I try to preserve those transients to get all the punch and snap out of each individual piece.  RMS levels/audible volume is going to vary from track to track but a combo of compression and mixing with the faders is where I create balance.....   hopefully leaving the transients and keeping them loud.
• When and when not to use normalization - I only use it to get each track peaking at the same place as a starting point.  Again..  just my method and not entirely necessary just depending on how you like to approach things
• Bus routing ideas - lead vox goes to a lead vox bus with one treatment.   Harmony vox goes to a harmony vox bus so I can do something different(a different delay or reverb or eq or whatever).  Both lead and harmony busses output to an overall vocals bus where I can glue them together.  that overall vox bus outputs to the master.  Often on the overall vox bus, I use a send to run to a reverb or delay bus so that all vox summed can have a consistent verb or delay added.  I might sidechain compress in those sends to duck the level of the delays and verbs when the voice is singing.  
• guitars are simpler for me.  I treat each individual track and output every guitar to a single guitar bus.  Guitar bus outputs to master, and I use a send on the guitar bus to run to a reverb channel too if I want to add just a tad to every guitar.
• For bass, I usually duplicate the bass line track 3 times.  One is the original and is pretty well preserved as is, minus light compression and maybe some EQ to shape.  The 2nd bass track I parallel compress and squash the life out of it.  Kill all the transients and make the bass sound very round and full(and unnatural too).  I blend it in to taste.  The 3rd track, I high pass it around 250hz or so, so im getting out most of the lows.  I run it through and amp sim and add some dirt and midrange.  I blend this track in just to add enough dirt to give the bass some cut and growl.  I buss all 3 to a single bass buss and use a light compression to glue it all together.
• Drums are where I invest most effort if the whole kit was mic'd properly and I have enough sources to play with(I usually use 9 or 10 mics when doing a 5 piece kit myself).  Each track, drums and overheads and room(s) get outputted to a master drum buss. compression is light with a 30ms attack and moderate release to keep transients and keep it sounding lively and natural.  I use sends on the individual kick, snare, and tom tracks to send them to a parallel compression bus.  I squash the life out of them, just like the bass guitar, in that bus to make the drums sound really round and have depth.  I keep cymbals out of this bus so that they dont get splooshy with the excess compression.  I then output the parallell compressed drum bus to the master drum bus and blend in to taste just to make the drums sound rounder.  That master drum bus has a send to a drum verb bus also if needed to add some roominess.  Lastly....  if the drums arent present enough, I use drum replacer and create midi events for each individual drum itself, then run those into addictive drums and lightly blend kick, snare, and tom samples outputted to the master drum bus.  It doesnt take much.  Blending just a bit of each sample in brings the drums forward.
• Panning techniques - I usually keep it kinda simple.  I use track lanes to automate pans.  Like during the verse, guitars are 70% left and right.  During the chorus, they open up to 90% left and right.  Same with the overheads.  70% during the verse opening to 90% in the chorus.  Its subtle but it makes the song seem like it grew once the chorus hits.   If I use sends, I automate the send pans the same way
• Reverb techniques - also kept simple usually.  If I need it on an individual track(like only a snare) sometimes I just put it directly on a track.  If I want the whole bus of instruments to be affected by the same verb, I use sends and on the reverb bus I dial out all the dry in the mix and only leave the wet verb and dial in to taste.  Sometimes maybe side chaining so that the verb ducks a bit when the instrument or voice comes in.  Really only adding space between phrases etc.
• the next to last step is to mix to taste, then check the output on the master.  If the output on the master is peaking too high I select everything and hold CTRL and drag every single fader down the exact same amt simultaneously untill its somewhere between -4 to -6 on the master.  then export the whole thing at 24/44.1 with no dithering anywhere and open a new session to master the thing.  In the mastering chain, the last plugin is usually a limiter that can apply dithering.  Ill set the sample to 16 bit in the limiter and add dithering, then export the master at 16/44.1(with no dithering because it was done with my limiter plugin).
• the last step is to listen to the mix in a dozen different sources and then start over because I hate how some things sound in the car or in the home theatre or whatever lol.
• it sounds like a lot but it isnt when you have a track template built with all the plugins and busses and sends pre - added.  Make it a big enough template to support more tracks than you typically have and you're never having to stop and add any new tracks or anything.

The more technical side of things...