For mixing, i always find its helpful to find something that sounds similar to what you are trying to acheive, and stick that in an extra track. Mute it, but keep it there to listen to as a reference, because you need to remember your ears will adjust to compensate for too much bass/top end very quickly.
So having something remaining the same is always good.
Plus you can go through and listen "ok my cymbals dont have enough treble" or whatever.
I tend to use 4 tools when i'm mixing.
1. the most important. volume.
2. eq. i use a 7band that came with protools because its what i like.
3. reverb. i will often have a reverb send, just to try give everything the feel of being in the same room.
4. compressors/limiters these can work. but i tend to over use them, and then just remove them in the end.
always remember to go back and compare with the clean signal.
You can then chuck on anything else you like.
The last thing i do before hitting bounce, is to remove all those plugins you stuck on.
(on a side note, something a lot of people ignore is the low frequencies of a snare. boost the 150-250Hz region a bit.)
