Howlin

[pauli]

All good points, but I'd personally caution against mixing strictly toward industry expectations, mainly because the industry is performing very poorly and its getting worse every year. If people aren't willing to pay for music that sacrifices everything for the sake of really clear lyrics, maybe we shouldn't be mixing to that standard.. Music first, mate. That's what REALLY sells records.

You can still apply my suggestion of doing most of the mixing with the most basic tools in this genre or any other, but of course you'd have to do some coarse automation and print it before you start processing. That's just my philosophy, though, and it's not the only one that works. Many ways to skin a cat... But applied properly (with suitable tracking, like you said) it ALWAYS works, so that's why I preach it. Assuming I've settled on levels for the important bits, kick/snare, bass, vocal etc. if I can't rough a track in with simple level, pan and HPF, that's usually a strong warning sign to me that the track in question might not support the music and these days I'd rather mute it than start fighting that early in the mix, since on the forum I haven't got a producer breathing down my neck. In the real world though, you're right, the artist, producer and possibly recording engineer may have left you with a multitrack that needs a little bit more treatment before you can properly stage gains.