Mix a pop song - Starting Point

This article is written with the assumption that this isn't just a mix you'll throw together, but something you are going to spend serious time over - i.e. several hours - and the intention is to get a world-class result by intention, rather than by accident.

I'm assuming here, that you have in your possession the multitrack, and that this multitrack contains the standard compliment of about 8 tracks of drums, one or more tracks of bass, some keyboards and/or guitars or other instruments, a lead vocal, maybe some backing vocals, maybe also some percussion tracks, and perhaps even a few odd sound effects that sounded good at the time.

Additionally, I'm assuming that you have a mixing environment, like n-Track (which is excellent), or at least a traditional multichannel mixer coupled to a multitrack machine, and a reasonably complete set of outboard effects such as reverbs, compressors, equalisers, de-essors and the like. You won't need them all, but you will almost certainly need some of them.