Mixing my Next Album!!!! YOOO!!!

Hey y'all! I'm working on my new album spiral rn I'm MIXING1!! it's for this song called Plant the Seeds before we fall. it's 11:27PM on a Wednesday night.

Really wanna blog just for whoever wants to read my story ideas and the things I'm working on.

My Mixing Process

I mix to -12db, starting with a listen through of the rough mix and writing down notes of the things I like about the rough mix that I don't want to lose in the final mix.

and then i go through and solo each track, with a eq cutting out all the unnecessary frequencies.

I usually DON'T remove any FX cus like.....there's a reason i added them in the first place right? 

and then after that I start to level everything, starting with the most essential elements of the song. in this case, the kick, synth chords, and main track of my vocal

i turn the thing that i want to be loudest (in this case the synth because i love yummy synths and idc about mixing "rules") and then i close my eyes and turn up the kick, and main vocal until it sounds right.

you can tell a good balance by making a track too loud, and then too quiet, and then you get it somewhere in the middle where you know it's just about right.

it's then a process of adding in the rest of the tracks, automating the volume and certain fx parameters, adding compression to anything that isn't upfront enough, equing clashing frequencies, adding texture with saturation and FX like chorus or a flanger, fucking with panning and stereo shit (which i still don't fully understand) and listening until your ears fall off and TAKING BREAKS. because if you mix for too long you'll RUIN your song.

I also like to SAVE AS versions like song[0.0] song[0.1] because sometimes song[3.2] mix will sound way better than song[final final this one no this one FINAL THIS ONE] 

I just came back to this song after 3-4 day break of hearing it and I was instantly able to tell what i needed to do. If you feel stuck in a mix, STOP. If you intuitively don't know what to do I think it's best to just stop and come back before you over mix it and then lose the magic of the song.

BUT IF YOU REALLY WANNA LEARN MIXING you should check out this YouTube channel, You Suck at Mixing, this guy is lit YOU SUCK AT MIXING

I also just mix in ableton using mostly stock plugins because......they sound goodnuff to me!!

What's yalls mixing process? Any stories of mixes gone wrong?