Mixing is a lot more than just setting levels. It is one of the most complicated and esoteric processes in music. There’s no one technique you can rely on to do it properly. I got into recording and mixing because I thought I could do a better job than the engineer my band hired for next to nothing. The truth is I could, but it wasn’t considerably better until I’d worked it at a long time.

-Beginners place too much emphasis on compression. Running a compressor if you don’t know what you’re doing is a mistake. Automating the volume can often do the job without any of the unwanted artifacts. Use effects wisely. If a vocal is too loud in the chorus and too quiet in the verse, a compressor is a good idea. Distorted guitars don’t usually need compression.

-Reverb is also overemphasized. One engineer quipped to me, “If you can hear the reverb, you’ve got too much on.” There are, however, times when this is a good idea, and reverb can have an interesting effect. The wet/dry knob is there for a reason, though. Reverb is meant to create a sense of space in your recording. It can be used to place elements 3 dimensionally - sending less important tracks in the background and more important ones to the front.

-Clipping is one of the easiest mistakes to make. Louder is not necessarily better. Watch your levels at every point in your system. Every device in your recording chain that has the capability to add gain can clip the signal and distort it. Depending on the instrument, your waveform should have obvious peaks and valleys. It should never be a thick dark rectangle. Note that in a pinch, a little bit of clipping is not a big deal. If it only happens a few times in a track, and it’s not audible, you might be able to get away with it (if re-recording isn’t possible).

-Normalization is a solution used by many that raises the level of the recording to where you need it. The trouble is that normalization can also negatively affect your recording. When you raise the signal level, you also raise the noise floor, potentially making room noise easier to hear. The best strategy is to get the recording to peak at the level you need it to be in the mixing stage. This is hard to work out at first, but a little practice should help.

-No one’s word is law. Everything works differently for everyone. Making a recording is a lot like songwriting. It’s basically a few hundred little decisions, and there’s just as many ways to go about it. Your favorite songwriter, for example, might only write lyrics on the back of two dollar bills, and that’s not necessarily going to work for you.

-Everyone has a different strategy that works for them. Advice and feedback is important, just don’t let it get you down. Anyone who says ‘it sounds like crap’ or only emphasizes the faults is not worth listening to. Helpful feedback tells you what you’re doing wrong and what you can try to fix it.