I used to record all the tracks myself and it showed. Lately, I'm just doing covers that I can find backing tracks for. Soon as I get a good way to get drums in the mix, I plan to start doing original stuff again.
I just played guitar over a backing track. The guitar was run through a compression pedal straight into the interface. In other words, no real mixing involved which for me is a really good thing because I don't do it very well.