u b k is right on, as usual.
I'd consider doing sub mixes for the drums & guitar. Aside from helping with your headroom problems, it'll give you the versatility to audition changes quickly and without confusion. Your gain structure on the drum reverbs may change slightly. I'm very big on submixing, personally. Being on HD helps (delay compensation, extra busses). And you can try FX on these returns as well, although less is often more.
How do you do this? Get all of your drum tracks next to each other, highlight them in the mixer (click on the leftmost drum track name, shift-click on the rightmost drum track name -- they should all now be highlighted), and option-shift click, drag, and change the output of one of the drum tracks to an empty stereo bus pair. They should all respond. If you haven't done this before, I'd recommend saving right before you do it -- then you can revert. If you, for instance, option-click instead of option-shift clicking, you'll change every track on your song
, so be careful!
Then make a "New" track -- stereo Aux Input, and change the input to the bus you're using.
If you're overdriving it and need to manage headroom, you can also make a stereo Master Fader and set it to that bus pair.
Incidentally, now if you need to do volume rides on the drums, you can just use the aux return...simplicity itself!
(...although you could've already done this with the drum grouping -- you DID group your drum tracks, right?).
Also, remember when EQ'ing that one cut is worth a thousand boosts, especially in digital (it's been shown that digital EQ's respond more accurately to cuts). It definitely takes discipline to turn stuff down, but it's worth it. Think: tracking=painting, mixing=sculpting. You define the body of a mix by what you take away. That counts gating, EQ cutting, fader rides, and compression (slow and fast, which have different uses), and more. And you can't learn gating from a book.
***
Charles Dye's mixing DVD is awesome, and it comes with PT files of the song mixed in the video. It's worth every penny (and I don't get paid for saying that
).
Do you have 32 or 48 tracks? How many busses are available -- if it's 16 (8 stereo), you may start to run out if you're doing any serious mixing, by the time you do submixes and FX.
Don't be afraid to ask the questions; that's what we're here for. Who needs another microphone thread, anyway...?