Les, if you can't hear the wood for the trees, then you are morphing, not mixing,lol! Or orchestrating.
one giant blend sound.
I'm beginning to think that mixing is like singing, listen to the good ones and emulate them.
I don't wish to offend any singing teachers or singing coaches, but why would I take lessons singing from José Carreras when I can just listen to him sing and learn from that??
But maybe that's why I sing like
Captain Beefheart, I never sang in school and used to get into trouble because I didn't,lol, but not only did the music teacher pick out crappy songs, but ones she thought flattered her voice best, and always sang lead, and thought of the students as backup singers?!

I was only a kid, but I wasn't totally stupid,lol!
Come to think of it, why did I even pursue music in the first place?
Between that and those dang flutophones! Not to mention relatives that sang religious music that never invited me to sing with them, okay so I did drop the religion,lol!
https://youtu.be/1vPj4EtX2Yk?t=20s