Start with the lead vocal. Get that sounding right. Build everything else around that. I know this sounds over-simplified. To a certain extent it is. On the other hand, mixing isn't rocket science and the trick is to keep it simple. I've watched some legends work and was always amazed at how they managed to keep the big picture in focus and not get distracted by "options". To (briefly) elaborate, solo your vocals and get them organized first. Create groups. Once your vocals are working, then start to build up the other elements in relation to your vocal package.
I hope this helps.
J. Wells
Did you actually listen to the mix?! There IS no lead vocal! This song is hilarious though. I think no matter what you do, it's going to sound super busy. A big thing I can see you doing is really playing with panning and eq carving to give everything it's own space. Don't mess with all different verbs and effects and such, it'll only cloud the image more.
1) Start with the drums, since a bad ass mix aint bad ass without bad ass drums!
2) Mute out everything except the drums guitars and bass, and get the guitars and bass in check with some eq carving (to give everything it's own space) and moderate compression (if there are any peaks sticking out at you that you want to control)
3) Is that a sax in there? Whatever THAT is, get that gelling with the instruments next
4) Treat these vocals as one big stereo track. But first. Try this. Stereo buss all these gang vox (except those high pitched opera things - make them a separate track). Then pan the stereo buss to the center, making it mono. Start with an eq or compressor (whichever you like first). EQ out the mud in the mids, high pass the low end thud. Not much eq boosting needed here, since with so many vocals, there's no possible way they won't stand out. Although they sound a bit dull, so some air anywhere from 6-12 db might work. Try a high shelf.
5) Compress these vocals as a whole as well. There's one huge peak closer to the end. You may want to automate that down so that you don't have to compress the whole vox buss to deal with that one peak. Don't go overboard with compression. Start at maybe a 2:1 and go up from there. Probably no more than 6-8 dB of gain reduction.
6) Bring the vocal buss back to stereo and see how it sounds (panned all wide like it was, maybe a LITTLE narrower, leaving room for guitars and OH's panned hard R and L).
7) A little verb bus for the whole track, send a little bit of everything to it to taste.
8) Work on those little opera things as a separate part and pan/eq/compress it to suit whether or not you want it to stick out or blend in.
Good luck!!!
