We surveyed our Facebook group (Here's a link to request to join the group) about what mixing tip made them feel like an idiot, but mix ten times better. Here is what some of them had to say:
Using one or two reverbs on a return channel instead of slapping different reverbs on everything
how to properly set attack/release times on compressors and limiters
How important distortion is to bring things to life. Just small amounts do wonders to so many thing
Cutting more than boosting EQ
Learning to use saturation and multi-band saturation instead of compression to boost rms, smooth peaks, add harmonics, etc. That and using a frequency analyzer that allows me to capture the curve from a reference sound/mix and compare what I'm doing to the reference sound/mix (Voxengo SPAN Plus does this really well).
Setting my pre delay and reverb times right... use a delay time calculator to translate your bpms into seconds then use this time (or fractions of it) to set your predelays and reverbtimes. For example set the reverb of the snare so it is EXACTLY one quarter note (this is just an easy example).
Recognizing when my ears and brain are spent then taking a day or two away from a particular project before coming back to it
This is a controversial one:
CLIPPING IS OK
Tough question. I'd have to say: "learn your processing tools and also how to use them in unexpected ways." This has really shown me how powerful even stock plugins can be.
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