Parametric EQ (software/hardware of choice) followed by Multiband Comp followed by a limiter at the end. I may add other things between the comp and the limiter (warmers, vocal processers etc...) if needed

i've done a good bit of mixing & mastering as freelance work. the most difficult things i've come across are people refusing to do WAV stems and want me to mix down their project as is - problematic when missing plugins/they're not working on the same DAW/32 bit vs. 64bit etc.etc... i actually try not to take jobs like this anymore or put my foot down in the first place.

also, there are people that obviously want you to mix/master the track exactly how they would. "it sounds great, but could you make it sound more like my mix/master as heard here? *128kbps stream link*". even though it's almost always against my better judgement, the client is always right...so i usually supply them with another version in those cases and allow them to choose between the two in the end. thankfully most times it's ended with them using my first mix/master anyway lol

edit: surprisingly, the easiest jobs for me have been outside of 4/4 electronic music. i've done a few bands, rappers, and even some film score stuff that went off without a hitch and no problems. the most difficult clients are almost always techno producers, who absolutely insist their entire track be centered and dry...what a headache.

lol I have one client who insists that there is a choir on everything... his voice is doubled, trippled etc. for the verse, the chorus, the backing vocals, the humming, the bridge, everything... so imagine 30x mail voices singing at once all different parts 

try using multiband... a mix of compression and expansion. I tend to expand my highs and compress my lows. I also try and keep my compression to a minimum.

I usually export MP3 files In my mastering software (studio one) or for a quick fix, Audacity is brilliant

Study multiband compression.... this way you can compress/expand different frequencies before limiting them to get a loud mix but also not destroy the track either.

in your page, every song you embedded says "sorry we can't find this track" or sumtin like that

thats because I gave up on the clowns at soundcloud and switched over to hearthis.at that is why I linked the track at the bottom from beatport, which is one of my own

REPOST: here is a repost I have done on another forum some time ago I hope it serves you well

catchy title right

http://calgarc.com/drum-processing/

Been working on a new project and figured I would go through the process on how i create my drums. This tutorial is based around ableton, but it can be done in any DAW, or hardware if you still mix that way haha...



First off I like to start with my idea, which happens to be all those things over to the right before I even start working on the drums let alone production.

When it comes to my drums I use Ableton's Simpler.





Alot of Simplers...I group all my sections together when producing. This allows for 2 things. 1. it keeps everything organized. 2. It allows me to name my tracks after the patch/sound/sample/synth etc I used. You have no idea how much of a blessing it is to know exactly what patch was used when your files get corrupted (when windows doesn't do the win part).





Now we can program some drums. Anything goes here, i guess just make it musical... I like to double up my samples. For instance I like to use a low kick as well as a high kick, I will explain that below.






Now we can process each track. a quick little cheat I have is solo the track I am Processing and then add a spectrum to the group channel as well as my EQ's/Compressors. Once I have processed the soloed track I can move those Effects over to the track. This way I only use one instance of spectrum and it just makes things a tad bit quicker (It too me longer to write this tutorial).

For my kicks I tend to have a sample with the low end oomph i want, as shown below. I then have a high end kick, with that hammer sound I love. I use both snares and claps. The Claps are EQed to remove all the low end as well as most of the mids. I then use the snare to give the clap some body. I have 3 tracks for my hats, One is on the beat, the other off the beat and one is a 16th close hat with the decay/sustain shortened a bit. I also created a simple bongo loop to give it a little groove



Now we have Beautifully Processed drums, Terrible sounding drums.

What we need to do now is mute all of the tracks and bring them up one by one until they sit nicely. I personally bring the kicks up first get those mixed together. followed by my hats and so on.  After that is done, I like to make a duplicate of my high kick and use that for side chaining. I generally only side chain the 16th hat when it comes to drums.

Now we have beautiful sounding drums. All we have to change the levels on the group channel so the drums sit nicely in the mix. We can now create buckets of sections for our Bass, Leads, Pads, Vocals, and anything else you want.







This is what a final track could potentially sound like

https://www.beatport.com/elektriccafe/tracks/qdjx87bnrfhi/lost-original-mix
Did i miss anything??

skip the headphones... skip the sample pack. first things first is to learn your daw. Once you figured out how to use the basics then you can move on. all DAWs do the same general things.

you will spend the next 2 years doing nothing but trolling forums and watching youtube videos, until you go crazy.

Futuremusic
DJTT
this forum
Gearsluts***

are good places to start.