?Maybe it just comes from experience or from spending time with some badass audio mixing dudes, but I've found that when I sit down to mix, my results are WAY better than they were just a few months ago. I think the biggest reason for the improvement in my mixing is the fact that I'm a lot more aggressive than I use to be.

I mean that in the past I may feel a little funny with grabbing an parametric eq plugin and slamming it to the limit. Now, I really don't care. I know what I'm looking for and I'll do whatever I can to get it. As long as the tracks are well played, the instrument sounded good in the room, and everything was recorded in phase, there is no reason why you, as mixer, can not get great sounding mixes. As long as the just mentioned criteria are met, you can force a mix go just about any direction you want to take it.

Know You Are In Control

The fact is these tracks have no power. You do! Control them. Destroy them with compression if you feel like it. Don't destroy them with compression if you feel like it. Basically, forget that those little numbers on the plugins mean anything...because they really don't. Most people agree that it takes more plugin EQ (number wise) than it does analog EQ. Again, just adjust until it feels right and have an attitude while you do it. You are in complete mastery of your tracks. So do as you please.

Mix With Confidence

I'm not sure how you get this, but fake it if you need to. In other words, when you sit down to mix, sit down to kick some ass. If you get insecure about your mixing decisions, you've already lost. Make a mix and go with it. If you sit down with a passive attitude, you are done.

Ignore The Monitors If They Are Lying

For a certain project I've been mixing, I noticed the bass guitar was way too loud on my computer system. Oddly enough, when I went back to my monitors the bass was just right. In other words, I just had to compensate for my monitors in my head. So, I yanked the bass down considerably so that it was barely audible in my monitors. It was NOT the idea level in my monitors, but the bass sounded DAMN GOOD in my computer speakers. Weird! So for every song on that session, I've mixed the bass way low...I'm talking about 5dB or so low and they are turning out to be great mixes.

I would never be able to pull this off if I was mixing passively. In some ways, my aggressive confidence is allowing me to not give a shit in some ways. That may sound like a bad thing, but for me it's the only way to hit “render” on a song that has the bass obviously too low in my monitors.

Conclusion

If you want to mix like a badass, start now. Realize that you can do anything you want with any well recorded track. There are tricks to deal with just about any situation as long as the track was well recorded. Take control of your mixes and don't overt hink anything. Just do it and listen elsewhere.