a nice compressor on the mix bus will help glue things together.

Moxioron wrote: I believe the goal is to have the mix sound like everything was recorded live.

Not at all. The objective is to make a great mix, not to imitate a concert, unless that is specifically the sound you want.

Not at all. The objective is to make a great mix, not to imitate a concert, unless that is specifically the sound you want.

Correct me if I am wrong, Moxioron, but I think by "recorded live" you mean in terms of a cohesive performance (different instruments and parts in synch, meshing well together with a common feel), as opposed to "sounding like a concert" in overall ambience and space?

In that case, I would think a lot depends on the performers, more so than the recording/mixing technique. Starting with a solid rhythmic foundation can help (drums/click track), or perhaps a "live" scratch track that gets overdubbed. How are you tracking things now?

Mixing an event such as a recording made where all the performers played simultaneously and keeping the feeling of that type of performance in a mix is much much easier than bringing that same feeling to a mix of separate tracks laid down one against the other. There are subtle nuances and reactions by the musicians to each other when tracking as one, that is hard to get when tracking separately. It takes a certain type of studio 'dude' to get this to come across when separate tracks are being made.

As for mixing it to make it sound "like a live performance", a mix engineer needs to go deep into the tricks bag to make a cohesive mix 'sit' together.

Groups will help. Subgrouping similar instruments and sub grouping reverbs will also allow for the spacial aspects to have more of a perimeter to them. Compression has already been mentioned. The thing is to not overdo this. Tying the bass to the kick drum is a good start and using a compressor to do this helps. Try to link up instruments that work the same dynamic ranges and at the same time remember that their individual signatures are all part of making the sound of the song.