Mute means mute. That's right: You pull the track right out of there. If doesn't help the song it doesn't belong. Mixdown is the time to be blatantly critical of every track that's been put down. You don't reduce the volume, you don't bury it behind something else. Do it and it'll simply result in a messy mix. You can mute either by automation (via software or mixer hardware), or the old-fashioned follow-the-timelog-with-your-hands-on-the-mute-button technique. You don't have to mute the track completely either. You can add interest by pulling it in and out of the mix at key spots (obviously not at the places where it's causing mix difficulties!).

Damn I was all set to get a decent pair of head phones for the monitoring stuff, but apparently external stand alone speakers are better... $$

Dumb question I know, but does anybody know whether adjusting the EQ (EQsubtraction?) can be done to just a segment of one track? I use cooledit and have played with EQ for a whole track, but I dunno whether segments are poss without creating a separate track by cut and paste.

Never knew so much was involved in the mixdown! Great find dude!

Tell me about it! I've been learning a lot about mixing. I don't use cool edit, but this is what I do with cakewalk. I open up the track window so I can see the wave file. Then figure out which part of the wave I need to adjust. I click on the wave to "select" it and then click and drag over the top to select the section of the wave. Does that make sense? Then you can do whatever you want to that part. Mostly I've been adjusting dbs.

Excellent I've just found out how to do it - exactly how you suggested, cheers Vina!...I think CoolEdit is more or less the same as Cakewalk. Actually I can't believe how cool it is to be able to adjust the EQ on just a part of the track...computers are kewl .