[b1j]

My mix is at a state where I have a full, rich sound, and I don't hear any distracting muddiness. There's even air in the bass, in its very own zone (2k). The other instruments receive selected cuts and their little custom boosts at 200, 230, 400, 800, 1500, and 5800. The bass has a nice wide scoop at 450. That's all I know to do with EQ. No woofs anywhere.

Every note from every instrument is discernible and occupies its aural location, like a small vocal ensemble. There's tons of saturation (see other harmonics thread) and no need for stereo widening; it's been done with panning, EQ traffic control, and the distinct instrument timbres. I sent all the tracks to a single room reverb set for 2.4 sec in a 17x22x10 foot space, which I think gives those resonances the right amount of bloom time.

Apparent loudness is even-handed throughout the verses and events. I did make another significant tweak on one track tonight. Loudness-wise, it kind of dances now through the stages of the song.

The high-strung guitar and the bass each have soft-knee compression to keep them poised and articulate without sharp peaks or whispers. The mix track has the 1176 emulator I gushed about last week. Hanging onto that!

Every track has headroom: none of them exceed -12 dB, and the mix track rides between -4 and -6.

In short, I can't imagine any other mixing adjustments to make.

So to get to the point, do I defy common sense and try to master this mess, nube that I am? I have no clear notion of goals except reference-level loudness. I don't know how to deal with overall EQ, compression, or reverb. It's all done already, right? (Pros, see what I mean about being clueless?)

I wish there was a way to be guided through the mastering process, to learn hands-on.