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Abusing your sound while mixing shows poor musicianship and will only disadvantage you when you present your creation to the world. It will not only serve to sabotage your reputation, but also demoralize you. Make sure that your mixing is near perfect and that you and the listeners are happy with the sound and quality of the recording and mixing.
I have talked about how the experimentation of effects can be very useful in terms of obtaining originality and interesting concepts for your music, but there comes to a point where too many effects can narrow that perspective and stray away from the initial potential of the song and also kill your mix. If you do have problems getting your mix right with all the effects chained together, you must remove the effects where used for the experimentation and start again.
Too many effects can also distract from other instruments and components, like where too much echo/delay from a guitar may bury the sound of the drum kit hi-hats. You must keep a balance between all instruments, and if extra effects get in the way of the core music, you must remove them and try another way to portray originality because balance is more important than originality for the sake of it.
Reverb is a very useful effect that brings a sense of atmosphere to a song, but there is a fine line between good reverb and just plain bad reverb. It may improve vocals by a large margin, but they tend use a huge amount of bandwidth and you’ll face a large amount of frequency you need to perfect. Reverbs of low quality tend to bring a kind of “ringy” tone to the mix, if it does not sound natural it is always best to search for an alternative. Quality must always be the goal.
Mixing will never result in a perfect mix. It comes down to experimenting and developing an experience for the listener from it. Quality mixing software is there to help free your creative mind and allow you to create unique music that is of high quality at an affordable price.
