Had some lolz at this thread. Also had some smh moments.
It's sucks that I've seen so many people come here in the "Newbies" section within the last year or two looking for advice (admittedly with vague questions. probably because they don't have enough knowledge to know how to ask what they're trying to ask properly) and get run off. I use to always recommend HR to people, now I just direct them to youtube because it's embarrassing to see that the butthurt from new and old members alike here in this section makes the entire forum seem completely useless.
What did jigfresh do? He's a cool guy and from the little I've gotten to know him - the farthest from pompous.
Anyway
ADVICE TO Jon A Than (if he even comes back) -
-You're making electronic stuff? Do you know much about synthesis?
Learning how to do your own sound design can get you to a different level sonically (because YOU'RE making YOUR sounds) and creatively (just the actual sound of that weird soundscape or bassline you program can inspire a melody or rhythm or something that you).
And if you're making your own sounds from scratch when you get around to mixing you won't have much to do because ideally you'll have achieved the sonic result you're after from the beginning.
I don't master my own stuff anymore so I can't offer any advice there.
-If you're not already doing this - save yourself some time by creating templates in your DAWs and using those for however long you want to (a day, a year, whatever). 1. It will save the time you take loading up new tracks and devices before you get to work and 2. By locking yourself to a certain set of instruments or processors within a template you'll by default define a period of time. (Say, you're only going to produce in a template that has 20 drum sounds and 4 instances of Massive for a year and whatever you produce within that year will be released as an album, or a live jam. or whatever you want it to be).
I've gotta to sleep now, but basically this:
Room treatment is always gonna come up when a new guy starts asking about improving their skill set and rightfully so, sooner or later you are going to have to address it and at the very least acknowledge it so you can compensate when needed. You can learn what your listening space is doing to your music over time. In HOME recording you make due with what you have and what you can afford.
Maybe you don't want or need it and that's fine. Maybe you'll go and build some bass traps. That's fine too.
I've heard some terribly mixed music from people with treated rooms, and I've heard some great sounding music for people with treated rooms. The same can be said for untreated rooms. What's more important than having a hyper-accurate system, and perfect room, is knowing your system and working hard.