| I mix drums strictly overheads and rooms first. I use the close mics only as a supplement (though the kick mic is more than a supplement usually, and comes next). This gets me a very natural, open, wide and deep sounding drum sound.
I do the vocals, including reverb, before that, and the bass after. Yes I ensure that vocals, drums and bass work well together before layering on the rest, but I have the rest just a solo flip away, and I make sure that they also work with the rest too.
Everything in a song is slave to the vocal, or whatever the focal point instrument is. So making sure it works first is a fine idea, as you must make sure everything else works with it.
Level is the most important thing in mixing, followed by pan. Compression is a means of affecting level. So it's always about reaching the proper level first, along with pan positions. I will HPF (or other spectral repair) if necessary before that, but I won't EQ until I have level set. That prevents me from using EQ for level rather than tone (a common bugbear).
Mixing is iterative, you have to go back and revise everything as you see everything develop, but I think my approach is about the most efficient I can get it. All the way at the end level becomes important again as I do section-by-section automation and rides. I will do some automation as necessary earlier if the track levels are irregular. In those cases, and in the cases of a quiet verse/loud chorus, I'm often automating prior to hitting the inserts (via trim plugins or master faders), and in other cases I'm automating faders post-processing. |