Mixing music, let's exchange techniques.

Anyone familiar with the fletcher munson curve. This is more inline with what type of topics I'd like to discuss. Not really about hardware used but this kind of stuff. Like the Masking Effect, etc.

Nah, dynamics are a big part of music. You put a compressor on the master channel and it makes it hard to blend in new parts. It's ok to compress a final mix if it's to be played in a noisy environment. Most radio stations do that but not so much with classical music as most listeners are in a quiet location. Pop music on the other hand is a totally different story, most recordings are highly compressed to keep the energy levels up. Party music. lol

Good idea really, after blending the mids of each track the listening area becomes more apparent and not all muddied up by excess bass. You probably find your self rolling the bass off on the bass instruments after you switch off the master EQ.

It's probably best to use a compressor on each track so you can adjust the db spread of the instrument. Typically a singer has to sing louder to get the high notes. Just an example there but in the final mix it can stick out like a soar thumb. Some producers want the voice to stick out and compress the vocalists dynamic range quite a bit, then they raise to volume a bit. This really applies to most instruments if the musician play overly dynamic. So are better at it than others so a little compression can compensate for that. So basically the end result is music with a certain dynamic range. Your job as a studio engineer is too balance the dynamics of each instrument independently so their dynamics are properly balanced in the mix. I try to mix things so you can pay attention to each individual instrument in the final mix. It's not always necessary to do that but most things I do just horsing around turn out pretty good. Now if I can only figure out how to play these instruments. lol