For me, tracking an audio recording in my studio is the easy part. Once everything is set up correctly, as long as the playing is acceptable, then the session is a success. But the hard part is the mixing stage. Getting everything to sit correctly in the final mix can be a very painstaking ordeal. Think about how many tracks there are total. If you are recording a live drum setup, then you will have at least eight tracks to mix right there, just for the drums! Then there will be multiple tracks each for the bass, guitar, vocals, keyboards, etc. Very rarely do I have only one track for an individual instrument. So when it's time to mix all these performances together, it is not uncommon to have twenty tracks or more. And it's not like there is an unlimited amount of audio spectrum for these tracks to occupy. The audio recording mix is a very tricky process and requires a great deal of strategy and effort. But there are ways to minimize the difficulty of the task. Here are a few simple rules that should help your final mix become a major success, instead of a ridiculed failure.

 1. Acoustic Treatment - This is obvious. If you have accurate monitors, then you want a good sounding room for them to accurately capture. You don't want any build-up of bass or harsh high-end frequencies to fight with while mixing. Measure the room with a good condenser mic and room measurement software. Treat the room with bass traps and broadband absorbers. And then your recording space should already be much improved.

2. Monitor Placement - This is really part of the acoustic treatment process. You need the monitors placed correctly to avoid reflection problems that can cause peaks and dips in the frequency range.

3. Rest - Ear fatigue can set in quickly when obsessing over a mix. Take frequent breaks to rest your ears. Otherwise, you will end up over-compensating for certain frequencies. And when you return to your mix the next day, after a night of rest, you will hear a completely different mix than you thought you had achieved.

4. Less is More - Nothing kills an audio recording mix faster than too much of one thing. Compression and EQ sit at the top of my list of things that need to be watched closely. Both need to be used very sparingly, only as needed. Nothing sounds worse than an audio recording that sounds squashed and thin due to overly used compression and EQ. There are no ways around this. Do not learn the hard way like I did.

5. Parallel Compression - Rarely do I apply compression to a track without having the original dry track along with it. Being able to control the balance of compressed and dry signal is key for me. I'm not guaranteeing it will work for everyone, but it has made my mixes sound much larger, without a squashed sound.

Try these things. They will save you many trips back and forth to your car when testing your final audio recording mix.