From the beginning, he and I never saw eye to eye on the sound I was looking for. After the first song went back and forth nearly a dozen times, I told him I didn't think we should continue because he had such a different vision (ear) for what the overall tone and balance should be. He offered to work more closely with me and do interactive sessions to fine tune the mix – which I accepted.
However, we continued to go back and forth about the guitar and bass tone. I was never happy with what he came up with for either. They always sounded brighter and more mid-rangy than my rough mixes. Both the singer (Srbuhi Hovhannisyan) and I spend a lot of time recording our music and we both have gotten to the point where we are recording the sounds we want to hear. Slight tweaks are always expected during mixing but changing the fundamental tone of our instruments/voice is not expected.
In late May, he sent me the initial mix for my song, Mirage of Tranquility and said that he did not touch the guitar tone, per my request. I listened to it and it sounded brighter than my rough mix so I compared the two and his version was 20% brighter on the vocals and the guitar. I asked him about it and he told me that it's probably the sonic maximizer he uses on the master track. I told him to please remove that and that this is a simple, small group, jazz recording, not a pop release and that it doesn't need a sheen on top. Evidentally that offended him and he sent me a response saying that essentially, he was recusing himself from working on the rest of the record. I inquired about the status of the deposit I gave him for this song and the mix meeting we have scheduled, and he indicated that the meeting is canceled and he won't be giving a refund. Sadly, the first pass track he sent me (not stems) is unusable.
I'm just eating the loss and using it as incentive to kick my butt and learn how to do the final mixing, mastering.