if you compress and eq your snare/clap, kick and bass you should have a good foundation for the track. I also like to put a compressor, eq and limiter on the master bus. also I like to cut the bass frequencies that aren't needed using a low shelf on a parametric eq. I see a lot of people boost frequencies on the eq but I find that cutting out unwanted frequencies to be a more effective approach. some of the lower bass frequencies can really muddy up a track and can take up a lot of the headroom in your mix which may also cause the track to not be so loud.
This.
Put a low cut on everything below like 30-40hz. Stuff like vocals and hi-hats and snares you should cut even more of the low end out. What I do when cutting out low frequencies is solo the track/instrument you're cutting and start at like 30hz then slowly move the cutoff frequency higher and higher until I can audibly hear the cut. Once I hit that point I pull it back a little until it's not noticeable anymore.
That basically cuts out a bunch of stuff that you can't hear, or don't need in your mix. All those low frequencies just muddy up your mix. You can do the same with high frequencies too. Cutting out all the unnecessary freq's will free up your mix, allowing you to make everything louder without clipping.
Use a spectrum analyzer at the end of every single track when you mix too so you can see the space that sound is taking up in the frequency range. Make sure sounds aren't competing with each other in the same ranges. If you do have competing sounds, you can boost a frequency 1-2db on the first sound, and cut that same frequency 1-2db on the other sound. Then do the opposite and cut out a different frequency on the first sound and boost it on the 2nd sound. That will make the sounds compete with each other less and sit better in the mix.
