This.

 

Great question and a big topic.

Overall, I try to get the listener to "feel something". Could be an emotion or a physical thing like the desire to "move". To get this to happen I think that all the technical aspects of the mix need to be in place so there's a certain technical level that needs to be achieved first. I don't want the listener to think that the song "feels bad" or somehow "off". That's one to avoid if possible, lol.

 

Fader work -> Collect some reference tracks (just to ensure i'm not going crazy while i mix and refresh my ears time to time)-> set up all sort of analyzing tools (to visually check what i'm hearing) and frequency isolators -> hear the source and work the bigger picture.

I'm taking notes on every step of this process. Every one. Don't sleep on the notes; you can easily forget and do things out of the scope if you're not sure where you need to go and enter some rabbit holes that will not benefit the record at all. Notes are generally your checkpoints of things that will not change depending of your mood on the day.

 

Your reply reminded me that I should start taking more notes lol, thanks, I was thinking about this earlier this week

 

I mix as I'm recording...I know, "you're not supposed to do that!" but whatever, I'll also master my own music, but I can't afford to pay people to play with my hobby with me.

When mixing other people's stuff I usually make a point to see them perform live, even if I'm the one recording them and then mixing, just so I can be as faithful as possible to their true sound. Over production is a real thing, I try to stick to accentuating what's already there for a band....unless they WANT some crazy production to augment their sound, then I go to town with fx and crazy edits. That's what I call fun.Tell me to do whatever I want and I'll try to make something truly unique.