Just tried something new and works great.

[sausy1981]

Hi all, I just read about balancing at the start of a mix and learned this technique that might be useful for those who don't already do this.
When you go to set your level and pan mix, have all your faders @ unity gain and use the input/trim knob on your channel to set your level to approximately where you want the instrument to be, the reason being that when making adjustments later on in the mixing process and your using the faders, the fader is more responsive around unity gain and adjustments will be more precise.
Maybe this is a very well known technique but I never knew of it and it's helped me, so just thought I'd share, Hope this helps someone.
Laters...

 

[bouldersoundguy]

That's a classic technique used in theater mixing to make it easier to manually hit cues on a real mixing board. I've done it some in a DAW, but if you are using emulating plugins and running a track fairly low in the mix it's possible you won't be driving the emulator with enough signal. In other words there are pros and cons.