Tip 3.) Cut down on nasty/harsh ringing in the 3-4KHz area - it can/will make your tracks sound sharp and amateurish. Learn to work with an EQ band set to a super narrow Q (Q = EQ bandwidth) to hulk smash horrible frequencies; it works great on drums (video ex.1: drum room mics), guitars (video ex: 2) and especially lead vocals (video ex. 3).

Obviously you could automate on/off on certain sections, or adjust the gain/amount of cut on certain sections (e.g. the singer sounds fine until they start belting it out). The EQ curve might ‘look wrong’ but it often sounds fantastic, especially if you have a frequency hunter EQ like PSP Neon (used in the below example) or FabFilter’s Pro-Q; experiment with Linear Phase EQs, too. I’ll dip out 20dB on a lead vocal, no problem - I'm fearless, like a tiger. Try it. Don’t be scared homie. 🎚 🎛 ❤️