How Not to Screw up a Mix

I learn a lot through trial and error. But that also means a get frustrated often. Another way of putting it is that I learn what not to do by doing it, sometimes over and over until my brain finally catches on that "doing x,yz will not give you the results you want"!

Here are a couple of the biggest lessons I've had to learn:

1. recording everything hot will give you a "cooked, smeared, un-detailed" sound, 
2. gain stage your plugins. Clipping one plugin can sound bad. Multiply that by a channel with 5 plugins and compressors, and you'll have a real problem! The compressor (not to mention compression and limiting during mastering) will make the clipped sounds nice and loud. 
3. Follow an established protocol for your work flow.  I have created my own, and you should too. Maybe I'll post mine up if there's any interest. 
4. Regarding #3, don't just have a protocol or work flow that you don't ever look at. Study it, know it.
5. Don't bite off more than you can chew. Sometimes you don't realize you've done this until it's too late ... and that's OK. But do your work in chunks and take regular breaks. this will help your brain, your ears, your eyes and your relationships.
6. Follow through on your promises/release dates etc. I had been working on an album for 8 years. That's insane. I set a release date for August 2016. I stuck to it and I'm glad I did! now I have 6 more songs percolating. 
7. Always reference your mix to a *good* pro mix in the *same style* as your music.
8. Always loudness match the reference tracks to your track. This means turning down the reference do it has the same RMS loudness as your song. This is incredibly important.
9. Always reference each mix on a variety of playback systems,  but especially in a vehicle. Vehicle sound systems have an uncanny way of exposing mix issues. I recently listened to a remix/remaster of Pearl Jam's first album. It sounded fine enough on headphones, but the whole album totally fell apart in the vehicle. I much prefer the original mixes, despite all the reverb (it was the 90s). The remixes are tinny, way overcooked and terribly honky.
10. Use an AB plugin like TB Pro Audio's AB_LM (freee) or Ian Shepard's Perception plugin ($149) to loudness match before and after your FX chain.