Having the right gear is critical in a mixing environment. I'm using Bearfoot 27's and NS10's with a Bryston 4b - without a high quality monitor system it would be hard to tell what I'm hearing. I do a lot of my mixing in the box because having total recall is awesome for changes - but, it doesn't ROCK like hardware does. For critical mixes, I use hardware inserts and hardware FX to bring sounds to life. I typically mix to stems - guitars down to a stereo stem, bass to a stem, vocals to a stereo stem, BK VOX to a stereo stem, drum rooms OV and hats to a stereo stem, SD and kick to individual stems, and FX to a stereo stems.... All in all I typically end up with to 16 stems into my SSL mixer. I have the option of 2 bus compressors, The allen smart C2 and the Manly Vari Mu. For really aggressive mixes I may insert the distressors to my mix bus. I monitor the 2 track I'm recording as the mix, so I really know exactly what I'm putting out. No surprises. I've been mixing since '96.

Here is a mix I did with the SSL mixer as described above, stems from pro tools with hardware inserts, mix bus to the Vari-Mu - rec 2 track. The cool thing about this recording is that I used the apex mix pre's in the drum room - the character it added to the drums is pretty cool.

And here are some final mixes produced by Costa Mesa Studios: