This thread is the culmination of spending 6 more hours spent choosing my final instrument and attempting to adjust my levels from the ground up on a recent WIP I want to finish.
I thought I was close to completing my Star Fox Corneria theme remix. My composition is solid, I knew I had a few EQ / volume levels to deal with first though. Long story short, there was a loudness war across too many levels, and I wasn't happy with my work, so I decided to reset all my EQ's and volume levels / automations and start from scratch.
So far I am glad I did, but I am finding myself having to make decisions about what the next step should be and I am having a hard time thinking through what the best choice would be. Do I EQ and automate volume for each track at a time, is it better to EQ everything before automating anything? Am I better served to get my levels set first before automating / adding delay's or effects? Is it usually best to mix and EQ percussion first, depending on style?
I know more or less what needs to be done, and how to do it, but I do not quite know when is the best time during production is to do those things. I am interested in hearing how others here go about it. I know its different for everyone, and I would think a producer would always be making tweaks to all aspects of a mix as they notice things to improve, but there is a general process / system in place, right?
In short, do you use an order of operations when it comes to mixing/mastering, and if so, what is it?