Sounds like I need to work on my mixing abilities, which I was pretty sure was the case haha.
Although, I'm having trouble, conceptually, understanding the process of how to mix properly. I know that it's mostly about EQing, compressing, and using limiters to make all of the elements sound good together,
Some concepts are correct but you're mistaking volume balance, panning, stereo image control (ie width, mono vs stereo) to be more important than EQ, compression, and lord have mercy the limiter.
After you get the volume balance, panning, and stereo image control, i'd suggest you eq first then see if your sound needs compression. I wold stick to that process pretty religiously.
You don't need a limiter on almost ANY of your tracks, and if you do, you need to reconsider it's input gain or turn the channel down. You'll loose so much character from your sound source if you think that strapping a limiter and cranking the gain/volume will make it sound good. No, that's how good sounds die early.
So maybe I should go by the tenant of "if it sounds good, it is good" rather than thinking there is a correct "way" to mix?
The tip about doing EQ first is a good tip, thanks!
And sorry to potentially cause confusion, I don't have a limiter on any individual tracks, only on the master channel. It seems to me (correct me if I'm wrong) that limiters might have more to do with the mastering part of the track, rather than the mixing phase.