“The real art of mixing is about the “Frequency Real Estate” you don’t use, not the space you occupy.”
Really what I’m saying is less is more.
Why is less, in fact more? My belief is because of how limiting/mastering works. There is in fact... a good reason people don’t notice how muddy their mixes are until they start limiting and mastering them.
It’s because limiters aren’t really loudness maximizers so much as they are intensity multipliers.
When we fail to aggressively cut frequencies we don’t need, then instruments start competing for dominance. If there’s too many instruments fighting for dominance in a given frequency range, then when we go to limit our track we increase the intensity of those clashing frequencies.
If our mixing were on point, then we would just be increasing the intensity of an open, clear, and definite mix which would sound absolutely wonderful.
So keep it clean, keep it nice and open.