OK, I mixed this song down with and without compression on the final mix. Keep in mind, I've been trying different compression setting for several weeks and writing them down so I can remember where I did what. I tried using standard factory pre sets, but they didn't work well for my style of playing and recording for some reason. So scrapped that idea and started trusting my ears. I've pretty much come up with settings I'm pretty happy with for now, but still tweaking. Plus different style songs need slight tweaking anyway, so I don't think I'll ever be able to say, "here's my bass setting from now on".
Version #1
Compression on individual tracks and compression on master mix down
The first thing you'll notice on this version is that everything is more lively, IE, snappier snare, clean highs, decent separation. But with this came sharp annoying highs in some of the vocals, mainly the main chorus. Also, the bass and kick were blending together, so I changed my bass notes higher and worked on keeping the kick heard. The only place I left the bass notes as is, is on the short drum and bass break on the intro before the song starts and between the choruses and verses. You will notice the first three bass notes, you can't even hear the kick hitting with each bass note. I feel I treated the bass track poorly in this song and I'm not happy about that at all. I'm going to try the side chaining thing next.
Version #2
Compression on individual tracks, no compression on master mix down
This version everything is here nicely, but the first thing you notice is that the snare is dull. No energy in my opinion. But everything is well heard and some of the annoying vocal highs are mellower.
Let's hear your opinion, because as I said, I'm up in the air, but leaning to compression on the master for final mix as long as I can successfully separate my kick and bass. I can easily EQ the annoying vocal highs.