As I gain experience and comfort with the basic tools of editing, I suspect I am falling prey to randomness.
I tend to do the first thing that occurs to me which, on reflection, is not likely to be either efficient or correct.
I'm asking those who do a lot of mixing to share some efficient work habits.

Assuming you have some basic tracks. Say Lead vox, (probably a sacrificial version until the mix is tighter) guitar, bass, drums are recorded and you are settling in to get a decent preliminary mix before deciding to add parts such as harmonies lead guitar, horns, padding etc.

How do you see the next steps?
EG
1. clean up the trax. 
     a) set volume automation for the worst of the dynamics

     b) correct or eliminate bad notes and timing

     c) ?

2. Basic EQ for general frequency positioning with other trax 
3. General Panning
4. Preliminary volume balancing between tracks
5. Add supporting trax as needed.
6. cut away unneeded sections of clips to develop the arrangement
7. Control the finer dynamics of the new trax with a touch of compression at the track level?
8. Repeat 1 thru 7 until the mix is ready to bake.

Now all the parts are there, balanced panned and ready to tweak the over all mix.


9. Buss work?
     a) Comp/limit
     b) EQ

     c) FX

     d)
10. Prelim.Master buss work?
     a) Comp/limit
     b) EQ

     c) FX

     d)



I know this is probably simplistic but I'm betting I'm not the only one that consistently ends up with a mess of unnecessarily complex, conflicting and overlapping FX and plugs due to an undisciplined, random process.
Some simple rules would save a lot of time and make a better product.
Thanks in advance,
Glenn

I get the bass and drums levels set first. Everything else is referenced from them. 

then I add tracks one at a time. I generally mute it all once it's tracked in to the project and unmute one at a time. 

Sometimes it is a dance of randomness and chaos.  I envelope, EQ, set levels, all on the fly.... sometimes muting some instruments while I work on others, and sometimes not.... 

Each project is different, and therefore each one gets mixed differently...... but almost always, the drums and bass get mixed first since they are the foundation of the music. 

Somehow it all gets done in the end.

The only thing I offer you is listen. Don't try to "fix" things until you know a real problem exists. Balance the mix before you do any FX and listen closely.

These are all very important questions, and each one can be a chapter in and of itself.  For eg..

Chapter One: Mixing your drums.

Chapter Two: Getting great bass.

Chapter Three: Distorted Guitars of Rock Hero's

Chapter Four: 12 great vocalists and how they get their sound.

Chapter Five, Chapter Six, etc, etc, etc...

Its such a massive scope for a forum thread....   So..   KISS, or keep is simple silly...  A basic mix...  If you assume all faders are at -inf, no fx on any channel, and the track has been very well recorded, or produced and the audio is on its tracks ready to go...

1. Decide genre.  Rock?  Ok.

2.  Bring up kick drum.  Bring up other parts of the drum kit.  Balance, Pan, Reverb, Compress,  Eq.

3.  Bring up bass guitars.  Balance to kick.  Fatten, effect, compress eq.

4.  Bring up all other instruments, except vocals.  Balance.  Effect.  Compress, Eq.

5.  Bring up vocals.  Balance, pan, compress, eq.


Those are the absolute basics.  Balance volume.  Create space with pan.  Control peaks with compression.  Create more space and atmosphere with effects like reverb and delay.  Polish with eq.

Assuming your song has long term macro dynamics, it's a good idea to start your mix with the loudest/punchiest section of the song.

If you mix a quieter section first you might find you'll run out of headroom when you reach the louder/loudest section.

Bristol_Jonesey


Assuming your song has long term macro dynamics, it's a good idea to start your mix with the loudest/punchiest section of the song.

If you mix a quieter section first you might find you'll run out of headroom when you reach the louder/loudest section.

Great tip, I like that one!

Bristol_Jonesey


Assuming your song has long term macro dynamics, it's a good idea to start your mix with the loudest/punchiest section of the song.

If you mix a quieter section first you might find you'll run out of headroom when you reach the louder/loudest section.

+1 Been bitten more than once by this as I was learning...

Bristol_Jonesey


Assuming your song has long term macro dynamics, it's a good idea to start your mix with the loudest/punchiest section of the song.

If you mix a quieter section first you might find you'll run out of headroom when you reach the louder/loudest section.

+1 Great tip, I have fallen a few times for this little issue!

If you DO run out of head room, don't sweat it. Use Offset mode (O) by First selecting all tracks, hit 'O' for Offset mode, hold Ctrl then click 1 of the highlighted tracks volume sliders and slide it down 6-8 dbs. This will Offset the volume of all tracks (doesn't change your automation even). You can choose whether the quick group volume change is absolute or relative by right clicking a group area like volume and then going into the group manager. I generally start off Offsetting just because I know I'm going to need the headroom once I plug in all my kick as FX chains! :)

Very nice tips here. Also, let's not forget about the benefits of monitoring in mono. It's very revealing (phase issues) and helpful especially when balancing instruments. If your mix doesn't pass the mono test, it won't translate as well as you may think.