I do not think there's any such thing as a perfect mix. The person mixing, apart from his skills with the board, also brings to hit his own ears and taste, and as such there's going to be total subjectivity involved. I mean, some things are "givens", like no vocal distortion, balance so that the instruments can all be heard, etc. but things like "is it a loud album", "what kind of EQ on the guitar" etc. are all artistic determinations. Even in commercial music where we tend to think of things as formulaic this applies. What's right to one person is not to someone else, as we can see from this thread. One has to put out what's in the heart AND the head and let the chips fall where they may. I do not get over-analytical about how things are mixed unless something sounds really off; after all, when my band gets done putting one of my pieces together it ALREADY sounds nothing like I envisioned it, so we try to let that creative act live in the mix.
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