Actually, I didn't say that. I said they shouldn't be mixing their own music.
Until a decade or two ago, almost no musician ever mixed their own music, they relied on audio engineers to do that. The proliferation of DAWs and cheap powerful computers has changed that so that now many musicians believe they can/should do this work themselves. They're not necessarily wrong, but a little humility is required I think, mostly by remembering that good audio engineering is a distinct skill set, quite different from being a good musician.
Although there are few exceptions, I'd wager that almost no example of whatever you (or anyone else) considers "great music" was mixed by the musicians who made it.
Exactly. That's why PaulDavisThe1st's suggestion was IMO completely reasonable. Mixing is a skillset that not only takes time to master, but also requires that you keep your ears healthy - which is something that many musicians don't always do (myself included). Not only that, a professional mixer understands that you can only mix for so long in a single session before your ears become fatigued and you can no longer trust them (until you give them rest).
I would argue that if someone cares primarily about the end result of the music then it should be easy to put aside their pride and allow the experts to do their job and help them sound better.
It doesn't faze me, because I'm not automating plugin parameters for things like reverb, compression, etc, so zipper noises simply don't happen. If I were to use automation and dynamically adjust parameters during playback and noise littered my tracks I'd agree with Paul: if I couldn't hear that it would be a terrible idea for me to mix the tracks myself!
That said, I did find a couple of spots where I forgot to crossfade the edges of punch in/out points, so there are quiet but audible clicks. Oh well. That's what happens when you mix audio with the headphones slightly off to be able to hear if the baby is sleeping poorly next door... :)
The point was to have some creative fun and have it quickly. That's what it was, so I'm happy.
