With the mixing of Calling of Simon, I’ve been trying to branch out into different mixing techniques (“different” as in: not trying to hide the mix in a glossy, mid-range mess…)

These techniques have involved:

• using delay and reverb for vocals (rather than relying on a channel strip preset)
• cutting out low end frequencies from the reverb-saturated piano
• cutting out boomy low end frequencies from the bass
• breaking up the drum group track into individual drum tracks

But I’ve faced problems with:

• finding mysterious frequencies that hurt my ears (and these might be caused by unnecessarily-boosted mid-range EQ frequencies… but still trying to locate the source)
  • helped: by using a compressor/gate on the master aux to act as a “catch-all” for any harsh frequencies missed in the individual tracks
• flattening the vocals… how do the pros do this?
  • helped: by using a compressor/gate to help with smoothing out the vocals
  • helped: by panning the vocals to hard left and hard right to take away the “in-your-face” aspect of the vocals and allow the vocals to sit better in the mix
  • still need to add more automation for the loud parts of this song, though… and find a way to cut out the light distortion happening from the mid-range vocals eq… (might try out different attack settings with the compressor, too.)
• taming the high-end EQ of the drums without making the drums sound like they are being played in a bit-crushed cave