In mixing there are so many things that we have to think on how we can fix our recordings so we can get a better result. Mixing is an art and there are so many techniques that you can use ,so you can have a nice mix. The issue is to start with something that will help you to have better options to choose so you can achieve the right balance in your song .Mixing is balance.
The first thing you can do is to pick an equalizer that comes with you recording software and choose on the first band ,the high pass filter function. But what is high pass filter? It’s a filter that helps the high frequencies pass through. You just cut the low frequencies in a way and you allow the higher frequencies to pass on your instrument. This is the best way to enhance your mix.
How does it work? You can use a very simple method so you can start using high pass filter and understanding it. Pick a track of your song and in the edit window , select an equalizer on the inserts tab. If you work on Cubase then you already have an equalizer interface in the edit window. As I told you earlier you choose the first band of frequencies and it has a preset at 100Hz. You can increase the frequency until 130-150 Hz. It depends on the instrument, but not more. These options are very good so you can start your mix. I suggest to do this in every single instrument of your song.
Why should I do this? As I told you high pass filter helps you to eliminate some frequencies that are not so “useful” in your mix and this way you can avoid to get a messy and boomy mix. Especially we that we are home studio owners and we work in a non acoustic treated environment, that factor increases the possibility to have more bass in our mix than we should. You may not hear the difference at the beginning ,but believe me you will get much better sounding results. If you want,you can compare the whole mix y simply bypassing your eq.
As I told you ,you can try this on every track of your song ,but not on the bass and the kick drum.You can’t apply high pass filter on these instruments ,because their frequencies are low ,and they are very characteristic. So if you high pass all the other tracks ,then you have much headroom for these instruments.but for your whole mix also.