thats always been my take on the relationship.

so SOP will be the same.

in this case, i still have to determine if what is bothering me is inherently a mix issue, or if its something that is a translation issue that mastering would address.

i assume that if properly mixed, that the material will hold up acceptably on numerous playback systems, it just wont be as loud as mastered material. i still expect that my responsibility in mixing is to get it right, and id love to hear the mastering guy say he didnt have to do much. i dont want to offload responsibility onto someone else, and i would not prefer to have the mix come back from mastering sounding different.