Great topic! I've been fighting this same battle with levels, EQ, and mastering as well. I tend to be off in the other direction though- all highs and little bottom end.

Quote Originally Posted by MARK EG View Post
the second i would say is to stop experimenting all the time and start to think long and hard about the chain. use tried and tested theories.. first eq ya shit using a spectrum analyzer. sure, trust your ears in certain bit but get the hell rid of those lows that will drive the other things in the chain that dont need to be driven (BTW one thing that might be contributing to ya boomy mixes might be the fact you're not rolling off @ 38Hz). bring those highs down that are obviously too hi... then it's pretty standard - get the level up to zero, then compress, then limit - both multiband (dont forget to use filter's to understand what each band is doing!!!!) get those attack/releases right too for each band for your music.. one thing that helped me NO END when realizing this was when i spent a whole day out of the studio with a pen, paper and the internet and constructed my chain. if you do this, you're not in the studio getting distracted and you can really understand what needs to be done...
I'm still learning the "process" and never really realized that there is a tried and true method. This info is good to know. Thanks for this!