how far should one take mixing???

[jugalo180]

thanks for checking out the thread. my question is concerning mixing before mastering. i want to know is there such a thing as overmixing? let's say i have a few tracks recorded. 1 vocal 1 bass guitar, high hats, bass drum, kick drum, and a horn. now is it more damaging than productive to use mastering tools to mix these instruments down?
i say mastering tools because a lot of mastering bundles offer better plugins: eq, compressor, reverb, etc... i took each track and mixed it down with waves native gold's tools, i used a positionalizer to put my vocals in 3d space and i used an enhancer to widen my stereo image. that was just a basic example, but am i stepping on the toes of the mastering department?

i am not in anyway trying to master my own work, but i read that you want to get your mix to be as close to sounding like the finished song as you can, but then read that you want to leave the mastering to the masters. should one just stick to :eq cuts, reverb, panning, chorus, delay, the normal mixing stuff, or is it okay to use those special all in one compressors, gate, roll off's, spatializers, bass maximizers, etc...., or will it be harder for the mastering department to work with my tracks? i apologize if my questions are too broad, or are not clear enough, but any attempt to help will be very appreciated. i really apologize for the run on sentences, but then again this isn't a grammer forum.

[Blue Bear Sound]

Just make it "sound good" to you.... (and listen to your mix on more than one system as you decide whether it sounds good)....

Get it to sound the way you want, without worrying about the mastering phase.......

And in mixing - while using proper techniques during tracking/overdubs might make the mixing process easier, you use whatever it takes to make the mix sound right.......... if it sounds good, it IS good!

[James Argo]

Originally posted by Blue Bear Sound
Just make it "sound good" to you....

...AND to the producer (if there is). In rare case I'm not so sure if it's good enough, one of my aproach is to compare the mix with similiar project in similiar genre (CD's). But take an objective limitation on doing so. Most of the time it gave me "... Oooooh, I see. "

[mixsit]

You do bring up an interesting twist. If you have and use the high end stuff on all your inserst and such instead of the more typical lower cost plugs, could it be a better mix? Assuming the daw could handle it...?

One of the common recomendations in 'how far to take the mix' applies to not doing things that can be better done in mastering, and not limiting at choices at that stage. (See how well I can repeat what we learn around here! <g>)
One option is to go ahead and apply your 'mastering' tweeks to the mix -L2, eq, whatever, so you can see how it might effect your view of the mix, but save a raw version for the real thing.
Wayne

[jugalo180]

thanks everyone, i think i'll use a combination of everyones advice. i particularly like what mixsit advised. i'll have a raw mix and a seperate one with spatializers and what ever just to let the mastering dept. know what i'm trying to achieve. thanks, i hope that works out for me.