mixing techniques

[chahende]

I have been recording and mixing with a decent setup for a year or so, and have worked on several projects getting great feedback from most who hear the product. I just have problems here and there i would like to tweek to make everything gravy.

I am having a problem with the vocals sounding great on soft backing parts but not as present when the heavy guitars kick in. Not really sure of what to do other than volume automation to bring em out. Is this what others are doing?

I am also having a problem with the drums. although I do get a great sound by itself, they are always sounding weak when I get the rest of the mix sounding as loud as I want through the monitors. I usually use the new york compression trick on em to get that punch, but somehow they end up sounding a little weak when everything else kicks in heavy. Am I using my compression wrong?

Just would like any feedback I can get, hopefully some good.