Song 1 progress - Mixing

Geeze time is flying, its been ages since my last post. Sorry for using text, I've used up my monthly internet quota so no video today.

I've completed the majority of the music for Song 1 now, and its sounding pretty sweet. It was a long process of discovering how instruments fit together, and making the composition work. I've recently started on vocals.

So anyway, here's what I've learned from putting down the instruments:

Lesson 1: Mix until your ears bleed. And then, mix more. And then, sit down and keep mixing.
I understand now that there no real single lesson to make a song sound great. It just takes a good mix. That mix comes from listening to your mix, trying to understand why a bit of the song sounds shit, and then trying to rectify it. That's basically it. I discovered so much from mixing until my brain hurt. Frequencies, levels, pan, doubling, it all takes time to come together...

Lesson 2: When you get tired, stop.
Mixing is so frustrating. It takes bloody ages to try and understand the sound that instruments make and how they can fit together. I found that when I got tired and frustrated, I needed time out. I discovered that waking up on a fresh day (after a frustrating session the previous day) and listening to my song again, it sounded better for some reason. I was like "hey, what I thought sounded crap yesterday, actually sounds good today". Its amazing how different things seem when you're tired.

Lesson 3: Most of the time, less is more.
I often found that when a part of my song sounded shit, it was because I was there was too much going on. Some of the instruments weren't adding to the sound, they were just making it muddy. Despite the deep sadness I felt when removing an instrument that I liked (and for the wasted time in recording it), muting unnecessary instruments helped clarity.

Lesson 4: Calibrate your ears on pro music that you like.
While mixing, take time out to listen to the pros. Doing this gave me ideas about how to improve my own song.

Lesson 5: Sidechain compression is your friend.   :)

That's about it really.