Some mistakes I make and can't seem to get out of,
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Mixing in solo. I used to do this for everything, I've stopped doing this for bass/guitars, but for drums, I just have to solo the kick, snare and toms, maybe the odd close mic cymbal, I tend no to for OH/Room. But I spend most of my time with drums crafting the sound in my head rather than mix appropriate sounds (though the sounds in my head are usually typical of the genre so they can end up fitting anyway haha)
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Not going far enough with bass processing. I usually have 2 tracks, 1 for clean ampeg and 1 for crunchyish/twangy sansamp. Reading around here you guys tend to split into 3, parrallel 1 or 2, and bus them together, and do absolutely loads of compression stages. I tend to compress going in a bit, then surgical eq, compress, colour eq, colour compressor, all on an individual channel. Thats it
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Not automating enough. I automate pan a lot. I automate absolutely EVERYTHING with the guitars/bass, rhythm and melody, not leads. But for drums, I automate the toms a lot for vibier fills, the cymbals according to how a drummer places accents, gets tired after riding a while haha. But I leave the kicks along pretty much, and the snare automation is very formulaic, hardest hits every so often on down beat of new section or before a fill as they tense and anticipate, but I leave the rest. I don't automate eq unless its for a specific filter effect like telephone guitars, sweeps, drops, droops. And I tend to just automate compression for overheads/snare. Not the rest. Needs moAr rigor!
Other mistakes I've corrected and beginers tend to make are
- Boosting everywhere rather than cutting to shape or even correct sounds.
- Boosting in the same areas, while it may improve the sound, not accounting for where other instruments are. Example, boosting the snare crack and kick click in a similar place.
- Not learning the theory of how a compressor works so just going by presets or what others have done, rather than mix specific.
- Making own instrument too loud
- Not using reference mixes
- Having an "it will do attitude". I have never had this. But others, especially in tracking and shaping sounds-surgical stuff, I am absolutely obsessed with getting completely perfect takes, at the most I split into sections, at the least every bar for takes, punching, looping etc I am obsessed with getting the absolute perfect guitar/bass tone and drum sounds for the song or style and how it sounds in my head, I had a friend complaining about how it took 3 hours to get mic placement right for a classical guitar, we both agreed at the end it sounded sick. But for the style I exhausted every mic position and angle until it sounded like I was sat in a dark church with an Italian guy at the front with a light shining down from the roof on him playing and singing an epitaph haha
