I would be of the opinion that while composing and arranging your song, if a part sounds, feels, sits better and maintains the emotion you're striving for, while being played in an upper or lower octave, or in a different inversion, then that's how it should be. Not because you think you have to make room for something. Carving out space in a mix is better left to the tools for that purpose. Gain automation, volume, panning, EQ and compression are great starting points.

If you want to learn compression, cheat. Use the Mixing & Mastering cheat sheet binder for starters. Make sure you understand how threshold, attack, and release shape the type of compression you’re attempting to create. And when available, play with the Knee settings, soft or hard, to see how that helps or hurts what you’re trying to achieve. And you can never go wrong if you can hear how different compressors work. Open Compressor vs. a dbx160 vs. an LA2A vs. Manley Mastering compressor vs. an SSL G bus compressor. You get the idea. I’m still trying to figure out which compressor is best for different applications. Looking forward to studying this further during the next 6 months in the Art of Mixing course.

How does your mix sound in mono through your headphones and your speakers? Does your mix translate well in that format? Might not be the fix but might reveal some issues that otherwise go unnoticed. Or do you have some good old crappy small speakers you can throw on your system for monitoring?

Hears does have the REMINDER button that is supposed to keep you from applying settings to your bounces. Haven’t used it yet so don’t know if the reminder is helpful or annoying.

I use the plug in from the start so I don’t overcompensate in the mix. However, I will bypass it occasionally to listen to what I’ve done to that point. I’ll also monitor what my PAZ analyzer is telling me about the overall frequency spectrum and if I’m on the right track, so to speak, regarding what I’m attempting to achieve with the overall mix.

I might take you up on grabbing some templates from you. That part of Pro Tools has escaped me so far. I have created blank sessions for starting points with the tracks, subs, auxes and sends that I want in most projects but have not set them aside as templates. Not familiar with Nembrini Nexus. I’ll save that for another time. Thanks again.

Thanks Nathan.