Thanks for the feedback.
Well, I probably do a lot of things...
* I balance the track levels well, and compress them as needed or use volume envelops. I don't compress too much though - just leads and maybe drums. I don't have any instruments dominate the mix.
* I also don't have instruments collide with each other, but I try and blend them just slightly. Every song is different, but my "mud" area is 150-230hz, so I attack that are with a scalpel to clear everything up. The highs need less tweaking because there is less db there... so it blends better naturally.
* Sonic Maximizer further crisps the sound, gets rid of bad mid tones and blends it more.
* I balance the eq so that it's even visually, and sounds balanced, with more emphasis on sound than anything else. Usually the lows are a bit louder, and then the mids and highs are a little below, but the whole thing is +/- 4 db the entire way through. The highs can peak where the bass is sometimes, like during solos.
* I use multi-band compressors on the whole mix to further balance things, usually cutting more bass, or boosting some other freq's as needed. More balancing.
* I then apply a 7.5 to 10db gain in an l3-ll limiter to the entire mix.
Hope that helps!
post edited by egervari - 2009/01/02 07:21:08