One of the hardest things about learning to mix, especially when you’re starting out, is you’ll have no way of knowing when you’re done. The danger is you keep trying to see if you can make it just a little bit better. Most of us who’ve been doing this for a while know all too well what an overworked mix sounds like, but my advice to you is to try to do more with less.
When you start to see EQ curves that look like alien mountain ranges, or when your master output has a thousand plugins in it, you should start asking yourself if you’ve gone too far. Remember while you’re throwing the kitchen sink at your mix, and particularly where you have a chain like your master bus, it’s only as good as the weakest link. The remedy?
Well, experience, and a reference track.
