Are you sure you finished tracking? Do you have an excellent track fpr each part in the song, or can you piece one together from separate takes? Is it pieced together yet?

Have you saved the entire arrangement, deleted unused tracks, set your track names, set colors, and put the tracks into logical order, added markers for intro, verse 1, chorus 1, verse 2, etc, then saved under a new name?

Do you have written chord and lyric sheets? Have you stated the overarching message the piece is to deliver in a simple sentence or phrase? Have you charted your projected progression of this message delivery in terms of intensity as the song progresses, clearly noting where you think expected maxima and minima occur?

Have you listed the three or four most important parts of each section of the song, noting relative order of importance?

Have you cleaned up the original tracks, deleting metronome countins, silences, unwanted breaths, lip smacks, background noise, etc?

Have you corrected pitch and timing? Multed (cloned) tracks that need different processing, decided on an exit strategy, fade out, chop, where at? Have you applied low cut filters to all tracks except bass, kick, and any others that will benefit from sub 100 htz frequencies? Have you removed or deleted all temporary processing, FX, and normalized trim vs faders? Have you checked one last time for any digital overs, and left your engineers requested amount of headroom? Did you make a second copy of the identical files you are sending off to keep yourself for reference purposes?

Do you have a list of specific effects you want to use, noting where to use them?

Do you have a list of commercial cuts (reference cuts) you want to try to match the new song to, in terms of tone, FX, levels, etc, and which parts of which reference cuts match to which parts of your song?

Do you know who you plan to market the piece to, for what purpose, demo, end user, etc, and what distribution vehicles you plan to use, and if applicable, what specific format(s) you will release the work in?

Do you have a solid copyright on the work, and a contract with the mix engineer, covering price, schedule, specific tasking, and any other items of interest to you? Do you have independant recommendations from artists who are happy with the engineer you’ve chosen?

If you answer yes to all of these, you are well set to begin the mixing process.

The exact point where Tracking stops and Mixing begins is a gray area with many variables, but one way or another, all these points need to be addressed by someone, and in my house, these boxes get checked before I reach for transport controls and faders to begin mixing.